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One Mandarin Benefits the Whole Clan: Hometown Favoritism in an Authoritarian Regime

Author

Listed:
  • Quoc-Anh Do

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Kieu-Trang Nguyen

    (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Anh Tran

    (Indiana University - Indiana University [Bloomington] - Indiana University System)

Abstract

We study patronage politics in authoritarian Vietnam, using an exhaustive panel of ranking officials from 2000 to 2010 to estimate their promotions' impact on infrastructure in their patrilineal hometowns. Favoritism is pervasive across all ranks, even among officials without budget authority. Promotions of officials strongly improve hometown infrastructure including roads, marketplaces, and irrigation. In contrast to democracies' pork-barrel politics, elected legislators are not influential. Favoritism is likely motivated by officials' social preferences for hometowns rather than by political considerations, because favors are narrowly targeted to small communes, and are stronger where local culture emphasizes the family bond.

Suggested Citation

  • Quoc-Anh Do & Kieu-Trang Nguyen & Anh Tran, 2013. "One Mandarin Benefits the Whole Clan: Hometown Favoritism in an Authoritarian Regime," Working Papers hal-03470572, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03470572
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03470572
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Favoritism; Patronage; Authoritarian Regime; Political Connection; Hometown; Infrastructure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H76 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Other Expenditure Categories
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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