Property Rights, Democratic Attitudes and Civil Society in China

• In Event: Poster Session II: Comparative Politics

Abstract

How do wealth and property rights affect democratic values? We take advantage of an exogenous shock in the allocation of housing in China, where some families received title to their formerly state-owned apartments, and residents did not (and continued living in state-owned housing). We test for impacts on attitudes using an original survey conducted in China. Results find a strong impact of the exogenous shock on attitudes.

Authors

• Scott W. Desposato, UCSD

• Gang Wang, University of California, Berkeley