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Informal Institutions, Collective Action, and Public Investment in Rural China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2015

YIQING XU  and
YANG YAO
YIQING XU*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
YANG YAO*
Affiliation:
Peking University
*
Yiqing Xu, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ([email protected]).
Yang Yao, Professor, National School of Development and China Center for Economic Research, Peking University ([email protected]).
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Abstract

Do informal institutions, rules, and norms created and enforced by social groups promote good local governance in environments of weak democratic or bureaucratic institutions? This question is difficult to answer because of challenges in defining and measuring informal institutions and identifying their causal effects. In the article, we investigate the effect of lineage groups, one of the most important vehicles of informal institutions in rural China, on local public goods expenditure. Using a panel dataset of 220 Chinese villages from 1986 to 2005, we find that village leaders from the two largest family clans in a village increased local public investment considerably. This association is stronger when the clans appeared to be more cohesive. We also find that clans helped local leaders overcome the collective action problem of financing public goods, but there is little evidence suggesting that they held local leaders accountable.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 109 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 371 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2015 

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