Paul Schuler is Associate Professor and Associate Director at the University of Arizona School of Government and Public Policy. His research focuses on Southeast Asian politics, political institutions, national identity and gender and political participation. He has published morethan 20 research articles and one book, United Front, which explores the role played by the Vietnam National Assembly in Vietnamese politics.
He’ll present work jointly authored with Masaaki Higashijima (University of Tokyo) entitled “Elected Leaders and Informal Tax Contributions: Natural Experiment Evidence from Village Elections in Kazakhstan.”
The talk will be on Zoom, Tuesday, November 18, 11:00 (BJT).
Abstract: Do elections for local leaders boost informal tax collection and public goods provision? Existing observational and lab experiments find inconclusive effects, with some studies showing that traditional, unelected leaders secure greater contributions. We combine a natural experiment—the random timing of the introduction of village elections in Kazakhstan—with a survey experiment to test whether elected leaders elicit greater citizen willingness to contribute to local projects than leaders appointed by higher authorities. We also expect stronger effects among men than women. Our analysis shows elected village chiefs attract greater contributions than appointed chiefs. Surprisingly, the effect is more pronounced for women, suggesting elections are particularly important for encouraging women’s participation in local governance. These findings indicate that elections can increase contributions in settings where unelected chiefs lack traditional authority and are appointed by higher entities.
