Neighborhood Social Ties and Compliance Among the Poor

• In Event: Community Networks, Clientelism, and Participation (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

An extensive literature on political participation and social extraction suggests that peers, family members, and local authorities greatly influence the poor's willingness to participate in political actions and community projects. Other literature on social networks suggests that individuals participate more when they are located in close-knit communities. We bring these kinds of literature together. Recognizing that the poor do not uniformly reside in socially dense communities, we examine the extent to which close social ties influence the likelihood that poor individuals respond to the calls made by neighbors and local authorities to contribute to community goods. To do so, we employ a conjoint experiment and observational data from an original survey of over 23,000 respondents, fielded in more than 1200 communities in Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi. We find that the poor are more likely to express a willingness to contribute to a school or a burial fund, or to support a specific candidate when being asked by neighbors and village heads than by more distant leaders and that they are more likely to do so in communities with strong social ties. Moreover, we find support for community monitoring and bandwagoning as being two underlying mechanisms. Our findings suggest that poor individuals are more responsive to people from their community and leaders who are embedded in their community networks because they fear social sanctions by community members or expect rewards for compliance. This implies that more distant but powerful leaders may have less influence over the poor when they lack the connections to the local communities.

Authors

• Prisca Jöst, University of Konstanz

• Ellen M. Lust, University of Gothenburg