Education, public employment and social mobility in postcolonial Africa

政府如何分配公共资源是每个国家都关心的政治问题，但在贫穷和政治分裂的社会中，这往往尤其具有争议性。无论是基于种族、地区还是阶级，许多人都认为政治家将把公共资金用于政府工作、教育或其他服务，以造福自己的社区或选区。特别是在非洲主义文献中，许多学者将糟糕的公共资源分配与大陆令人失望的后殖民经济表现联系起来。人们经常认为，由于非洲国家缺乏强大的非洲人拥有的独立私营企业，国家而不是市场成为社会流动性和政治利益的主要仲裁者，而不是决定哪些个人或群体将受益的技能。结果，政府把钱浪费在了错误的服务上，雇佣了不适合自己工作职责的人，并在获取资源的问题上引发了种族和地区冲突。这些问题往往与种族异质性有关。一旦掌权，领导人就会利用国家的赞助来奖励自己族群中的盟友和支持者，而牺牲弱势群体的利益。然而，关于资源分配的理论文献仍然多于仔细检验这些理论的实证文献。为了解决这一证据差距，我的研究着眼于特定次区域的一种特定类型的公共部门再分配：支付给肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚和乌干达公共部门雇员的工资。大约三分之一的政府支出以工资的形式发放到了非洲的私人家庭。什么样的人从事这些有吸引力的公共部门工作？这些公共部门雇员的工作条件随着时间的推移发生了怎样的变化？研究发现，在这三个重点国家，获得公共部门工作的机会比人们通常认为的更以能力为基础，而且工作机会在不同地区和种族群体之间相对公平地分布。这些政府并没有雇佣大批技能低下的工人，因为他们的职位是由政治家或其他领导人赞助的，因为大多数公共雇员都是教师或其他受过培训的服务提供者。这些雇员的工资在独立后有所下降，如果考虑到他们高于平均教育水平的话，今天的工资水平与私营部门大致相当。我设立这项奖学金的主要目的是通过在学术期刊上发表文章、撰写博客和文章，将这些研究成果传播给学术界内外的受众。一个主要的优先事项将是与东非的学者、政策制定者和政策组织分享研究结果，这些辩论在东非尤为突出。作为公共就业工作的延伸，相关研究研究了教育机会政策及其对教育扩散的影响。鉴于中等和高等教育与获得公共部门工作机会之间的紧密联系，政府有一定权力通过重新平衡教育机会的政策来塑造就业机会。因此，教育也成为政府减少或放大群体不满的主要手段之一。我的研究着眼于教育机会随时间的分布，以推断教育不平等是上升还是下降，以及原因。该奖学金的第二个目标是发展这一新的研究议程，将目前正在起草的几篇论文带到出版阶段，并与其他从事相关主题工作的学者或实践者建立联系。

How governments distribute public resources is of political concern in every nation, but tends to be particularly contentious in poor and politically fragmented societies. Whether on an ethnic, regional or class basis, many presume that politicians will spend public funds to the benefit of their own communities or constituencies, be it on government jobs, schooling or other services.In the Africanist literature especially, many scholars have linked poor public resource distribution to the continents disappointing postcolonial economic performance. It is often argued that because African countries lacked strong African-owned private firms at independence, the state rather than market became the main arbitrator of social mobility and political interests rather than skills determined which individuals or groups would benefit. Consequently, governments wasted money on the wrong type of services, hired people poorly suited to their job responsibilities, and inflamed ethnic and regional conflicts over access to resources. These problems are often associated with ethnic heterogeneity. Once in power, leaders use state patronage to reward allies and supporters from their own ethnic communities, at the expense of the loosing groups.However, the theoretical literature on resource distribution remains larger than the empirical literature that carefully tests such theories. To address this evidence gap, my research looks at one specific type of public sector redistribution in a particular sub-region: salaries paid to public sector employees in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Roughly a third of government expenditure reaches private African households in the form of salaries. What type of people hold these attractive public sector jobs and how have working conditions for these public sector employees changed over time?It found that access to public sector jobs in the three focus countries has been more merit-based than often presumed, and that job opportunities are relatively equitably spread across regions and ethnic groups. These governments did not employ armies of poorly skilled workers who owed their position to the patronage of a politician or other leader, as most public employees are teachers or other trained service providers. The salaries of these employees declined after independence and are today at levels that are broadly commensurate with the private sector, once we consider their higher than average levels of education.My main aim for this fellowship is to disseminate these research findings to audiences in academia and beyond, by publishing in academic journals and writing blogs and articles aimed at a wider audience. A main priority will be to share findings with scholars, policymakers and policy organisations in East Africa, where these debates are particularly salient.As an extension to this work on public employment, related research studies policies on educational access and how they influenced the diffusion of education. Given the strong link between secondary and tertiary education and the opportunity to access public sector jobs, governments had some power to shape employment opportunities through policies that re-balanced educational access. Education thus also served as one of the main means by which governments could reduce, or amplify, group disaffection. My research looks at the distribution of educational opportunity over time to deduce whether educational inequalities have rising or declining, and why. A secondary aim for this fellowship is to develop this newer research agenda, by bringing several papers currently under draft to a publication stage and networking with other scholars or practitioners working on related topics.