Cell Phone Access and Election Fraud: Evidence from a Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design in Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Cell Phone ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Election Fraud ◽  
Phone Access

scholarly journals Cell Phone Access and Election Fraud: Evidence from a Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design in Afghanistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-51
Author(s):  
Robert M. Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Cell Phone ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Social Monitoring ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Election Fraud ◽  
Phone Access ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the impact of cell phone access on election fraud. I combine cell phone coverage maps with the location of polling centers during the 2009 Afghan presidential election to pinpoint which centers were exposed to coverage. Results from a spatial regression discontinuity design along the two-dimensional coverage boundary suggest that coverage deters corrupt behavior. Polling centers just inside coverage report a drop in the share of fraudulent votes of 4 percentage points, while the likelihood of a fraudulent station decreases by 8 percentage points. Analyses of the effect of coverage on citizen participation in election monitoring, election-related insurgent violence, and the tribal composition of villages suggest that the observed declines in fraud are likely attributed to cell phone access strengthening social monitoring capacity. (JEL D72, K16, K42, O17, Z13)

scholarly journals Long-Term Contextual Effects in Education: Schools and Neighborhoods

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-377
Author(s):  
Jean-William Laliberté
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Contextual Effects ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Long Term Impact

This paper estimates the long-term impact of growing up in better neighborhoods and attending better schools on educational attainment. First, I use a spatial regression-discontinuity design to estimate school effects. Second, I study students who move across neighborhoods in Montreal during childhood to estimate the causal effect of growing up in a better area (total exposure effects). I find large effects for both dimensions. Combining both research designs in a decomposition framework, and under key assumptions, I estimate that 50–70 percent of the benefits of moving to a better area on educational attainment are due to access to better schools. (JEL H75, I21, R23)

scholarly journals Beyond Work Ethic: Religion, Individual, and Political Preferences

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Basten ◽  
Frank Betz
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Capita Income ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Homogeneous Region ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Per Capita

We investigate the effect of Reformed Protestantism, relative to Catholicism, on preferences for leisure, and for redistribution and intervention in the economy. We use a Fuzzy Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design to exploit a historical quasi-experiment in Western Switzerland, where in the sixteenth century a hitherto homogeneous region was split and one part assigned to adopt Protestantism. We find that Reformed Protestantism reduces referenda voting for more leisure by 14, redistribution by 5, and government intervention by 7 percentage points. These preferences translate into higher per capita income as well as greater income inequality. (JEL D12, D31, D72, H23, N33, Z12)

The Protestant Ethic Reexamined: Calvinism and Industrialization

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (13-14) ◽  
pp. 1963-1994
Author(s):  
Jeremy Spater ◽  
Isak Tranvik
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So

Can cultural differences affect economic change? Max Weber famously argued that ascetic Protestants’ religious commitments—specifically their work ethic—inspired them to develop capitalist economic systems conducive to rapid economic change. Yet today, scholars continue to debate the empirical validity of Weber’s claims, which address a vibrant literature in political economy on the relationship between culture and economic change. We revisit the link between religion and economic change in Reformed Europe. To do so, we leverage a quasi-experiment in Western Switzerland, where certain regions had Reformed Protestant beliefs imposed on them by local authorities during the Swiss Reformation, while other regions remained Catholic. Using 19th-century Swiss census data, we perform a fuzzy spatial regression discontinuity design to test Weber’s hypothesis and find that the Swiss Protestants in the Canton of Vaud industrialized faster than their Catholic neighbors in Fribourg.

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