BARGAIN, Olivier; VINCENT, Rose Camille; CALDEIRA, Emilie

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106851

Bordeaux Sciences Economiques [BSE]

VINCENT, Rose Camille

CALDEIRA, Emilie

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Ce document a été publié dans

World Development. 2025-03-01, vol. 187, p. 106851

Résumé en anglais

Decentralization, championed by international institutions, has been one of the most prominent public sector reforms of the last decades, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, few studies propose a quasi-experimental evaluation of its capacity to contribute to local development. We exploit the phase-in of decentralization at the commune level in Burkina Faso. We use satellite information on night-time light density as a proxy for local development levels, which has the advantage of being measured and comparable over time and space. The communes that were decentralized first can be compared to the others after the reform relative to the pre-reform situation. The difference-in-difference approach includes commune fixed effects and inverse propensity score reweighting to account for time-varying differences across communes. We find a positive impact of decentralization on the night-light intensity trends of the early-decentralized communes. This is supported by alternative measures (remote sensing of built-up settlements and a welfare index), which shows the possibly broader scope of decentralization gains. We show that decentralization did not lift all boats: only the communes with the ability to generate own-source revenues benefited from effective decentralization.< Réduire

Mots clés en anglais

Decentralization

Economic development

Local development

Africa

Burkina Faso

URI

https://oskar-bordeaux.fr/handle/20.500.12278/205004

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106851

Unités de recherche

Bordeaux Sciences Economiques / Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE) - UMR 6060

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Shine a (night)light: Decentralization and economic development in Burkina Faso

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Mots clés en anglais

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