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Does relative deprivation condition the effects of social protection programs on political support? Experimental evidence from Pakistan

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Title Does relative deprivation condition the effects of social protection programs on political support? Experimental evidence from Pakistan
 
Creator Kosec, Katrina
Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung
 
Subject cash transfers
income
surveys
political systems
social protection
politics
inequality
 
Description Could perceived relative economic standing affect citizens’ support for political leaders and institutions? We explore this question by examining Pakistan's national unconditional cash transfer program, the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP). Leveraging a regression discontinuity approach using BISP's administrative data and an original survey experiment, we find that perceptions of relative deprivation color citizen reactions to social protection. When citizens do not feel relatively deprived, receiving cash transfers has little sustained effect on individuals’ reported level of support for their political system and its leaders. However, when citizens feel relatively worse off, those receiving cash transfers become more politically satisfied while those denied transfers become more politically disgruntled. Moreover, the magnitude of the reduction in political support among non-beneficiaries is larger than the magnitude of the increase in political support among beneficiaries. This has important implications for our understanding of the political ramifications of rising perceived inequality.
 
Date 2023-01-19
2023-03-28T17:24:06Z
2023-03-28T17:24:06Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Kosec, Katrina; and Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung. Does relative deprivation condition the effects of social protection programs on political support? Experimental evidence from Pakistan. American Journal of Political Science. Article in press. First published online on January 19, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12767
0092-5853
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/129786
https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12767
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Open Access
 
Source American Journal of Political Science