The Road to Nation Building: Infrastructure Development, Political Patronage and Ethnic Identification in Africa (JMP)
The post-colonial era in Africa witnessed nation-building efforts aimed at establishing a national identity. Nation building is driven by the need for a united population to prevent conflicts and ensure long-term political stability. One key component of nation building is constructing a sense of belonging to one nation and having a strong sense of national identity. This paper explores the role infrastructure development plays in shaping ethnic and national identity. I use georeferenced data from five Afrobarometer waves, combined with a digitized panel dataset on road quality. As roads are not exogenously distributed and can be allocated based on the location of policymakers' ethnic homelands, I propose an instrumental variable strategy based on a least cost path network. I find that living near a paved road reduces national attachment and increases ethnic attachment. In terms of mechanisms, we find that road paving improves Information and Communications Technology (ICT), thus strengthening social networks created along ethnic lines. I also find an increase in the perception of corruption in governments—both national and local. Infrastructure projects can create opportunities for financial misappropriation, thus weakening respondents’ trust in government and consequently weakening their attachment to the nation.
The Path to Improved Health: Infrastructure Development and Access to Maternal and Child Health in sub-Saharan Africa
One important aspect of public health in developing countries is maternal and child health. As developing countries continue to invest in the improvement of maternal and child health, studies have found a list of obstacles to improving these two key aspects of public health. One of said obstacles is poor access to infrastructure to access health facilities. This project studies the effect of access to road infrastructure on maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper aims to answer the following question: How does the development of road infrastructure affect maternal and child health? The condition of a road is not static over time. Often, roads are upgraded from unpaved to paved. Using a difference in differences estimation method, I study the extent to which the improvement of a mother’s nearest road increases the likelihood of access to good antenatal and delivery care. When studying the effects of road improvement on child health, the paper studies the extent to which the improvement of a child’s nearest road improves child malnutrition outcomes such as stunting and wasting. I find that children born after the road is paved are more likely to have been delivered at a hospital. They are also more likely to have their delivery performed by a doctor. Regarding child malnutrition, I find a reduction in the likelihood of being stunted, underweight, or anemic, when the child is born after the road is paved.
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