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Patronage and Public Goods Provisioning in an Unequal Land

Author

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  • Hadia Majid

    (Lahore University of Management Sciences)

  • Rashid Memon

    (Lahore University of Management Sciences)

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between economic and political inequalities and access to public goods provisioning in Pakistan. We construct measures of political inequality and political patronage using voting data, and economic inequality measures using representative household data. Firstly, we find a strong concave relationship between economic inequality and access to residential supply of natural gas. Secondly, we find that the presence of strong-men who can capture large vote shares is associated with higher access to natural gas. We uncover an optimal size of patrons: Patrons have an insignificant positive effect on access when patrons capture less than 20% of the votes and an insignificant negative effect when they capture more than 30%. At 20%, they have a positive effect that is significant in both a statistical and an economic sense.

Suggested Citation

  • Hadia Majid & Rashid Memon, 2019. "Patronage and Public Goods Provisioning in an Unequal Land," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 805-830, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:145:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1707-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1707-0
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    1. Muhammad Qahraman Kakar, 2021. "Ethnic Disparities, Women Education and Empowerment in South Asia," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph21-01 edited by Manon Domingues Dos Santos, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Horizontal inequality; Ethnic inequality; Publicly provided goods; Political patronage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods

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