Honor among Chiefs: An Experiment on Monitoring and Diversion Among Traditional Leaders in Malawi. Issue 8 (2nd August 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Honor among Chiefs: An Experiment on Monitoring and Diversion Among Traditional Leaders in Malawi. Issue 8 (2nd August 2020)
- Main Title:
- Honor among Chiefs: An Experiment on Monitoring and Diversion Among Traditional Leaders in Malawi
- Authors:
- Carlson, Elizabeth
Seim, Brigitte - Abstract:
- Abstract: Traditional, hereditary chiefs are an integral part of the development infrastructure in many African countries. To capture chiefs' behaviour as agents of development and understand the accountability mechanisms they face, we conduct a field experiment with 200 Malawian village chiefs, documenting how they distribute a valuable development good – iron roofing sheets – as we sequentially add monitoring by donors, subjects, and the state. We find evidence that even in the absence of formal accountability institutions, chiefs are responsive to monitoring by all principals. However, principals have competing demands: while most principals prefer allocations based on need as classified by the local community, a subset of the chief's subjects – his relatives – prefer to receive sheets themselves, regardless of need. When subjects are informed about the availability of sheets, relatives are able to capture allocations, overriding other principals and causing discontent. Altogether, diversion is minimised when chiefs are monitored by the donor, and only the donor. When chiefs are monitored by all their principals simultaneously, diversion is not significantly lower (compared to control), but dissatisfaction among subjects is greater. This study adds to the literature on chieftaincy and highlights the role of common agency in the design and analysis of development interventions.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of development studies. Volume 56:Issue 8(2020)
- Journal:
- Journal of development studies
- Issue:
- Volume 56:Issue 8(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 56, Issue 8 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 56
- Issue:
- 8
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0056-0008-0000
- Page Start:
- 1541
- Page End:
- 1557
- Publication Date:
- 2020-08-02
- Subjects:
- Economic development -- Periodicals
Economic history -- 1945- -- Periodicals
Developing countries -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals
Développement économique -- Périodiques
Histoire économique -- 1945- -- Périodiques
Pays en voie de développement -- Conditions économiques -- Périodiques
338.91 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.ingenta.com/isis/browsing/AllIssues/ingenta;jsessionid=37pnwd9pl1jxu.crescent?journal=pubinfobike://fcp/jds ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/00220388.2019.1703955 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0022-0388
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 4969.250000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22370.xml