Political dynasties and economic development: evidence using nighttime light
Date
2018-05-14
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Abstract
Political dynasties in the Philippines is often associated with corruption, poverty, and abuse of power. This paper examines the effects of political dynasties in Philippine cities and municipalities. Due to lack of extensive poverty incidence measure in municipality level, we exploit the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime light data to estimate economic outcomes. The unique panel data is widely used as proxy for economic activity. We find that political dynasties do not necessarily affect the economic outcomes in Luzon and cities. However, these political families exacerbate poverty in places with weaker institutions like Mindanao.
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Keywords
Political dynasty, nighttime light, economic development