Doctoral Dissertation Research: Political Enfranchisement and Social Capital

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This award funds research that will experimentally test hypotheses from development and political economics related to social capital, political enfranchisement, and trust in government using the unique circumstances of a new democracy in Libya. The causal relationship between democracy and economic growth is hotly debated. While some argue there is a causal relationship between the two, others claim an underlying characteristic of a given society jointly determines both governance and economic growth. One candidate for such a characteristic is social capital. This project sheds light on this question by examining whether, once a democratic election takes place, the stock of social capital in a society can be affected by who wins in that election. The project uses innovative laboratory-style methods from experimental economics conducted in the field in a country that is engaged in free elections for the first time in many years.This research will help us to understand mechanisms that support free elections and political enfranchisement in a fragile democracy, and deepen our understanding of the relationship between governance and economic growth.