Natural Experiments in Africa

Session Submission Type: Featured Paper Panel: 30-minute Paper Presentations

Session Description

This panel presents three opportunities to learn about institutions, culture, and public goods provision in Africa. Relying on three unique natural experiments (a discontinuity, a random assignment, and a natural disaster), these scholars are able to investigate the implications of legislatures, political favoritism, and cultural identity in African politics.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 53: AFRICAN POLITICS

Individual Presentations

• Effect of Differential Responses to Natural Disasters on Inequality and Conflict - Shelley Xuan Liu, Harvard University; Alice Z Xu, Harvard University

• Institutional Origins of Incumbency Advantage - Ken Ochieng' Opalo, Georgetown University

• When the Sorting Hat Sorts Randomly: A Natural Experiment on Culture - Joan Ricart-Huguet, Loyola University Maryland; Betsy Levy Paluck, Princeton University

Chair

• Claire Leslie Adida UCSD

Discussant

• Manuela Travaglianti University of California-Berkeley