Center for Global Development presents a brown bag seminar on
Do Remittances Promote Democratization?
Featuring
Tobias Pfutze
Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Monday, February 23, 2009
12:00pm--1:00pm
Please bring your lunch--drinks provided
at
Center for Global Development
1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Third Floor, Washington, DC
Paper abstract: This paper presents evidence for international migration to have played a significant role in the Mexican democratization process. It argues that the non-taxability of remittances reduces an incumbent government's ability to maintain political patronage systems and, as a result, elections will become more competitive. The empirical results, using data from municipal elections in Mexico, support this theory. Estimating an instrumental variable probit model, I find that remittances significantly increase the probability of a party in opposition to the former state party PRI to win in a municipal election. Moving from the first to the third quartile of the remittances measure increases that probability in previously state party ruled towns by more than 10% when party preferences are controlled for.
Download Do Remittances Promote Democratization (pdf, 320K)
Please RSVP to events@cgdev.org
