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Journal of Comparative EconomicsVolume 44, Issue 4, 1 November 2016, Pages 1002-1022

The effects of remittances on support for democracy in Africa: Are remittances a curse or a blessing?(Article)(Open Access)

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  • United-Nations University (UNU-MERIT), Netherlands

Abstract

We examine the effect of remittances on the legitimacy of democracy in Africa, testing whether remittance recipients are less likely to support democracy than non-recipients. We hypothesize that the effect of remittances on support for democracy varies across classes (i.e., groups or subtypes) of individuals sharing similar but unobserved background characteristics. Using the Afrobarometer surveys, we try to find out whether the respondents fall into different hidden classes in such a way that the effect of remittances on the degree of support for democracy depends on the class. Our results support that remittances may be a curse for the degree of endorsement and support for democracy, depending on the class of individuals that we consider. The analysis of the probability of being in the remittance curse class indicates that the perception of national priorities plays an important role. People who attest that freedom and rights are the main national priorities have a lower probability of belonging to the remittances curse class than individuals who choose national priorities that are oriented towards the economic conditions of their country. © 2016 Association for Comparative Economic Studies

Author keywords

Migrant remittancesMultilevel mixture-regressionsSupport for democracy
  • ISSN: 01475967
  • Source Type: Journal
  • Original language: English
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2016.02.004
  • Document Type: Article
  • Publisher: Academic Press Inc.

  Konte, M.; Netherlands;
© Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Cited by 5 documents

Ghauri, S.P. , Ahmed, R.R. , Vveinhardt, J.
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Escribà-Folch, A. , Meseguer, C. , Wright, J.
Remittances and Protest in Dictatorships
(2018) American Journal of Political Science
Baudassé, T. , Bazillier, R. , Issifou, I.
MIGRATION AND INSTITUTIONS: EXIT AND VOICE (FROM ABROAD)?
(2018) Journal of Economic Surveys
View details of all 5 citations
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