IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/agd/wpaper/13-019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

State fragility, rent seeking and lobbying: evidence from African data

Author

Listed:
  • Asongu Simplice

    (Yaoundé/Cameroun)

  • Oasis Kodila-Tedika

    (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo)

Abstract

This paper assesses the determinants of state fragility in sub-Saharan Africa using hitherto unexplored variables in the literature. The previously missing dimension of nation building is integrated and the hypothesis of state fragility being a function of rent seeking and/or lobbying by de facto power holders is tested. The resulting interesting finding is that, political interference, rent seeking and lobbying increase the probability of state fragility by mitigating the effectiveness of governance capacity. This relationship (after controlling for a range of economic, institutional and demographic factors) is consistent with a plethora of models and specifications. The validity of the hypothesis is confirmed in a scenario of extreme state fragility. Moreover, the interaction between political interferences and revolutions mitigate the probability of state fragility while the interaction between natural resources and political interferences breeds the probability of extreme state fragility. As a policy implication, there is a ‘sub-Saharan African specificity’ in ‘nation building’ and prevention of conflicts. Blanket fragility oriented policies will be misplaced unless they are contingent on the degree of fragility, since ‘fragile’ and ‘extreme fragile’ countries respond differently to economic, institutional and demographic characteristics of state fragility.

Suggested Citation

  • Asongu Simplice & Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2013. "State fragility, rent seeking and lobbying: evidence from African data," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 13/019, African Governance and Development Institute..
    • Handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:13/019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/State-fragility-rent-seeking-and-lobbying.-Evidence-from-African-data.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2013
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    2. José G. Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2005. "Ethnic Polarization, Potential Conflict, and Civil Wars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 796-816, June.
    3. Nathan Nunn, 2008. "The Long-term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 139-176.
    4. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Kirsten Ralf, 2012. "Les liaisons fallacieuses : quasi-colinéarité et « suppresseur classique », aide au développement et croissance," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 63(3), pages 557-567.
    5. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2009. "The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1218-1244, September.
    6. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2010. "State Capacity, Conflict, and Development," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(1), pages 1-34, January.
    7. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2013. "Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 234-244.
    8. Graziella Bertocchi & Andrea Guerzoni, 2012. "Growth, history, or institutions," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 49(6), pages 769-783, November.
    9. Daron Acemoglu, 2008. "Oligarchic Versus Democratic Societies," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(1), pages 1-44, March.
    10. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2013. "Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 234-244.
    11. Lisa Chauvet & Paul Collier, 2008. "What are the Preconditions for Turnarounds in Failing States?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 25(4), pages 332-348, September.
    12. Sachs, Jeffrey D & Warner, Andrew M, 1997. "Sources of Slow Growth in African Economies," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 6(3), pages 335-376, October.
    13. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Julius Agbor Agbor, 2014. "Religious Diversity and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: So Far So Good," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 16(1), pages 99-117.
    14. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    15. Kodila Tedika, Oasis, 2013. "Anatomy of corruption Democratic Republic of Congo [Anatomie de la Corruption en République Démocratique du Congo]," MPRA Paper 43463, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Daron Acemoglu & Davide Ticchi & Andrea Vindigni, 2011. "Emergence And Persistence Of Inefficient States," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 177-208, April.
    17. Baliamoune-Lutz, Mina, 2009. "Institutions, trade, and social cohesion in fragile states: Implications for policy conditionality and aid allocation," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 877-890, November.
    18. Simplice A Asongu, 2012. "On the effect of foreign aid on corruption," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(3), pages 2174-2180.
    19. David Carment & Yiagadeesen Samy & Stewart Prest, 2008. "State Fragility and Implications for Aid Allocation: An Empirical Analysis," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 25(4), pages 349-373, September.
    20. Daron Acemoglu & Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2008. "Coalition Formation in Non-Democracies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(4), pages 987-1009.
    21. Asongu Simplice, 2011. "Law, Democracy and the Quality of Government in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 11/018, African Governance and Development Institute..
    22. Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2012. "Determinants of Peace: A Cross-Country Analysis," Economic Research Guardian, Weissberg Publishing, vol. 2(2), pages 180-200, December.
    23. Simplice Asongu, 2013. "How Would Population Growth Affect Investment in the Future? Asymmetric Panel Causality Evidence for Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 25(1), pages 14-29.
    24. Baland, Jean-Marie & Moene, Karl Ove & Robinson, James A., 2010. "Governance and Development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4597-4656, Elsevier.
    25. Kodila-Tedika, Oasis, 2013. "Poor Numbers: explanation of Africa's statistical tragedy [Pauvreté de chiffres : explication de la tragédie statistique africaine]," MPRA Paper 43734, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    26. Graziella Bertocchi & Andrea Guerzoni, 2011. "The Fragile Defi nition of State Fragility," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 339-356.
    27. Simplice A. Asongu, 2015. "Institutional benchmarking of foreign aid effectiveness in Africa," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(6), pages 543-565, June.
    28. Daron Acemoglu & Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2012. "Dynamics and Stability of Constitutions, Coalitions, and Clubs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1446-1476, June.
    29. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 2004. "Aid, policy and growth in post-conflict societies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1125-1145, October.
    30. James A. Robinson & Daron Acemoglu, 2000. "Political Losers as a Barrier to Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 126-130, May.
    31. Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), 2010. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 5, number 6.
    32. Vallings, Claire & Moreno-Torres, Magui, 2005. "Drivers Of Fragility: What Makes States Fragile?," PRDE Working Papers 12824, Department for International Development (DFID) (UK).
    33. David Dollar & Craig Burnside, 2000. "Aid, Policies, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 847-868, September.
    34. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Paul Collier & V. L. Elliott & Håvard Hegre & Anke Hoeffler & Marta Reynal-Querol & Nicholas Sambanis, 2003. "Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13938, December.
    36. Patrick Francois & Ilia Rainer & Francesco Trebbi, 2015. "How Is Power Shared in Africa?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 465-503, March.
    37. Yasutora Watanabe, 2008. "Ministerial Weights and Government Formation: Estimation Using a Bargaining Model," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 95-119, May.
    38. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Henrik Hansen & Finn Tarp, 2004. "On The Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(496), pages 191-216, June.
    39. Daron Acemoglu, 2006. "A Simple Model of Inefficient Institutions," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 108(4), pages 515-546, December.
    40. Bandyopadhyay, Sanghamitra & Green, Elliott, 2013. "Nation-Building and Conflict in Modern Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 108-118.
    41. José Garcia Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2004. "Ethnic polarization, potential conflict and civil wars," Economics Working Papers 770, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Mar 2005.
    42. Mark McGillivray & Simon Feeny, 2008. "Aid and Growth in Fragile States," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-03, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Asongu Simplice, 2014. "Fighting African corruption when existing corruption-control levels matter in a dynamic cultural setting," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 906-922, October.
    2. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Remy Bolito-Losembe, 2014. "Corruption et Etats fragiles africains," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(1), pages 50-58.
    3. Kodila-Tedika , Oasis, 2014. "Forget your gods: African evidence on the relation between state capacity and cognitive ability of leading politicians," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(1), pages 7-11.
    4. Kodila-Tedika, Oasis & Khalifa, Sherif, 2019. "State History and State Fragility: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 97871, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Kodila-Tedika, Oasis & Khalifa, Sherif, 2022. "State History and State Fragility in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 47(4), pages 39-53, December.
    6. Francesco Forte & Mihai Mutascu, 2015. "State fragility and fiscal decentralization in EU ex-communist countries in a public choice approach," Working Papers halshs-01101558, HAL.
    7. David Carment & Yiagadeesen Samy, 2023. "Aid effectiveness in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: Lessons from more than two decades of research," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-8, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kodila-Tedika , Oasis, 2014. "Forget your gods: African evidence on the relation between state capacity and cognitive ability of leading politicians," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(1), pages 7-11.
    2. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Remy Bolito-Losembe, 2014. "Corruption et Etats fragiles africains," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(1), pages 50-58, March.
    3. Graziella Bertocchi & Andrea Guerzoni, 2010. "Growth, History, or Institutions? What Explains State Fragility in Sub-Saharan Africa," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 044, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    4. Bertocchi, Graziella, 2011. "Growth, Colonization, and Institutional Development: In and Out of Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 5856, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Merima Ali & Odd-Helge Fjeldstad & Boqian Jiang & Abdulaziz B Shifa, 2019. "Colonial Legacy, State-building and the Salience of Ethnicity in Sub-Saharan Africa," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(619), pages 1048-1081.
    6. Arcangelo Dimico, 2017. "Size Matters: The Effect of the Size of Ethnic Groups on Development," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(3), pages 291-318, June.
    7. Chuku Chuku & Onye Kenneth, 2019. "Working Paper 307 - The Macroeconomics of State Fragility in Africa," Working Paper Series 2433, African Development Bank.
    8. Cemal Eren Arbath & Quamral H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2018. "Diversity and Conflict," Working Papers 2018-6, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    9. Ananyev, Maxim & Poyker, Michael, 2023. "Identity and conflict: Evidence from Tuareg rebellion in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    10. Joseph Flavian Gomes, 2020. "The health costs of ethnic distance: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 195-226, June.
    11. Montalvo, Jose G. & Reynal-Querol, Marta, 2007. "Ethnic polarization and the duration of civil wars," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4192, The World Bank.
    12. Keith Blackburn & Gonzalo F. Forgues-Puccio, 2011. "Foreign aid - a fillip for development or a fuel for corruption?," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 158, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    13. Simplice A. Asongu & Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2018. "Determinants of Property Rights Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(4), pages 1291-1308, December.
    14. Bernardo Guimaraes & Kevin D. Sheedy, 2017. "Guarding the Guardians," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(606), pages 2441-2477, November.
    15. Pierre PECHER, 2013. "Ethnic conflict, power dynamics and growth," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2014008, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    16. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.
    17. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    18. Roberti, Paolo, 2019. "State capacity and repression: A model of colonial rule," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 247-264.
    19. Johnson, Noel D. & Koyama, Mark, 2017. "States and economic growth: Capacity and constraints," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-20.
    20. Dimico, Arcangelo, 2013. "Size Matters: The Effect of the Scramble for Africa on Informal Institutions and Development," MPRA Paper 54550, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Mar 2014.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    State fragility; rent seeking; lobbying; nation building; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:13/019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Asongu Simplice (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agdiycm.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.