Household behaviour in times of political change: Evidence from Egypt

Giesing, Yvonne und Music, Almedina (2019): Household behaviour in times of political change: Evidence from Egypt. In: World Development, Bd. 113: S. 259-276

Abstract

Using representative household survey data, we study the short-term effects of the 2011 Egyptian uprisings on household behaviour in terms of education and health expenditure as well as savings. We construct a measure of political instability by analysing the number of fatalities during political protests throughout the country. Difference-in-Difference estimations show that affected households increased spending on education, especially on their sons' higher education. The increase in education expenditure is particularly prominent in areas where households were in favour of a regime change. We argue that after the fall of Mubarak those households had a positive outlook towards the future, with better labour market prospects, and therefore invested more in their sons' education. At the same time, households decreased spending on health and increased savings, which can be interpreted as precautionary behaviour. Our results are robust to placebo tests, excluding Cairo, spillovers and alternative ways of measuring political instability. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Volkswirtschaft
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 330 Wirtschaft
• ISSN: 0305-750X
• Sprache: Englisch