Doctoral Dissertation Research: Political Enfranchisement and Social Capital

该奖项资助的研究，将实验性地测试假设，从发展和政治经济学有关的社会资本，政治解放，并在政府的信任使用利比亚新民主的独特情况。 民主与经济增长之间的因果关系是一个热门话题。 有些人认为两者之间存在因果关系，另一些人则认为，特定社会的一个基本特征共同决定了治理和经济增长。 社会资本是这种特征的一个候选者。 这个项目通过研究一旦民主选举发生，社会资本的存量是否会受到选举获胜者的影响来阐明这个问题。 本研究采用实验经济学的创新方法，在多年来首次实行自由选举的国家进行实地考察，了解脆弱的民主制度下支持自由选举和政治选举权的机制，加深对治理与经济增长之间关系的理解。

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.