Political connection is multiform, and each of its components may affect the enterprise in different ways. In this article, published in SAGE Open, Akouwerabu (2016) studied the advantages of two types of political connections with data from private enterprises. An enterprise can financially support a political party’s campaigns or support only a single candidate of a political party. The enterprises choose between these two types of political connections according to the respective profitability of each. The author makes use of primary data collected in 2014 from enterprises that take part in Burkina Faso’s public procurements to analyze the expenses and profits linked to each of these political connections. Thanks to database the author identified three categories of enterprises according to the type of political connection being implemented. The first category of enterprises financially supports only political parties, and the second finances only politicians. The third category is composed of those that finance both politicians and political parties. The data show that the enterprises that establish both types of political connections bear more expenses. These enterprises also earn more public contracts. The difference in treatment between these three types of enterprises is only viewed at the level of the number of public contracts obtained. This process allows the author to say that the only advantage linked to the establishment of political connection in Burkina Faso is the profitability linked to government procurements. The data employed do not address the hypothesis of tax reduction as a benefit of a given category.
In response to the Covid-19 crisis, 186 countries implemented direct cash transfers to households, and 181 introduced in-kind programs that lowered the cost of utilities such as electricity, water, transport, and mobile money.
Organizational and managerial structure plays an important role in the productivity difference among firms. However, studies that assessed the quality of firm management and its link with their performance are still scanty.
Research suggests that partisanship and social media usage correlate with belief in COVID-19 misinformation, and that misinformation shapes citizens’ willingness to get vaccinated.
We use original data on the locations of militant commanders, attacks on the petroleum industry, and oil theft to show that a 2009 amnesty concluding the Niger Delta oil conflict led to sustained declines in militant activity and growth in oil theft.
We provide evidence that violence reduces the adoption and use of mobile money in three separate empirical settings in Afghanistan. First, analyzing nationwide mobile money transaction logs, we find that users exposed to violence reduce use of mobile money.
Existing theories of democratic reversals emphasize that elites mount actions like coups when democracy is particularly threatening to their interests.