2026-04-17T18:55:58Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:2445/2278152026-04-09T01:45:30Zcom_2072_1057col_2072_478808col_2072_478917

Road to division: Ethnic favoritism and road infrastructure in Ethiopia Perra, Elena Etiòpia Infraestructures (Transport) Inversions públiques Planificació del transport Ethiopia Transportation buildings Public investments Transportation planning This paper investigates the role of ethnic favoritism in the long run allocation of road infrastructure in Ethiopia. I construct a 5 km grid cell panel by merging road network data from the late 1960s to 2016 with high resolution maps of local ethnic composition. Using a quasi-experimental empirical design, the study finds that cells where the local majority shares the ethnicity with the ruling elite receive 8.7 percent additional road investments and see a 13.8 improvement in road surface quality than otherwise comparable non co-ethnic cells. Exploiting the phased rollout of the Road Sector Development Program between 1997 and 2016, I also document that new roads raise night lights intensity by 0.27 standard deviations in cells benefiting from the program and by 0.51 standard deviations in co-ethnic areas, with larger effects for earlier investments. These findings suggest that ethnic alignment and the availability of large public funds jointly shape the placement of road infrastructure, influencing local economic dynamics. 2026-03-03T11:16:13Z 2026-03-03T11:16:13Z 2026-03-03T11:16:13Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2025.12.002 Journal of Comparative Economics, 2026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2025.12.002 cc-by-nc-nd (c) Perra, Elena, 2026 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Elsevier Articles publicats en revistes (Econometria, Estadística i Economia Aplicada)