Mansour, Sarah (2014) Essays on experimental economics: studying the political economy of the Egyptian transition. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis uses economics-style incentivised laboratory experiments to study the effects of the political transformation in Arab Spring Countries (frequent recalling of governments, political and social polarisation, and campaign dynamics of founding elections) on economic outcomes; such as tax compliance, support for painful economic reforms, corruption, and interpersonal trust. The main focus of this thesis is on Egypt, being the largest Arab country in terms of population, historically the most influential in the region, and with a dominant cultural influence felt all over the Arab world.

I find the following experimental evidence: (i) Giving citizens the right to recall government officials decreases the level of corruption in government through the increased accountability it imposes on elected politicians. Specifically, corruption is reduced by 14% in the presence of this right (p=0.04). (ii) Empowering citizens with the right to recall government officials was also found to decrease tax compliance by 20% due to the high frequency of divisive elections associated with this newly acquired right in a newly democratised country and the creation of losers who become unsatisfied with the outcome of the election process and thus the psychological costs associated with their incompliance are minimized. (iii) Ideological polarisation in elections can impede economic reform. And that (iv) negative campaigning in elections can impact negatively on the level of interpersonal trust in the society.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Democratization -- Egypt, Egypt -- Politics and government -- 20th century, Economic aspects -- Egypt, Economic development -- Egypt, Political culture -- Egypt -- 20th century
Official Date:	December 2014
Dates:	Date Event December 2014 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Miller, Marcus,1941- ; McMahon, Michael
Sponsors:	MFK Foundation for Community Development ; INTRO Group ; El Masry Foundation for Community Development ; Jāmiʻat al-Qāhirah.|bKullīyat al-Iqtiṣād wa-al-ʻUlūm al-Siyāsīyah [Cairo University. Faculty of Economics and Political Science]
Extent:	viii, 30 leaves : charts
Language:	eng

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