M Rodwan Abouharb
Biographic Data
| ID | 1418341 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Rodwan Abouharb |
| GIVEN NAMES | M Rodwan |
| FAMILY NAME | Abouharb |
| SIGNATURE | ABOUHARB M R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4181-7060 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 158 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Unlocking Public Support
Does communication about International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs influence citizen support for reforms and the institution itself? Using a survey experiment in Pakistan, we investigate whether emphasizing specific program content—tax increases, budget cuts, or social welfare packages—shifts public opinion. We find that while highlighting adjustment costs like tax hikes and spending cuts reduces program support, emphasizing the continuity of so…
The Scapegoating Hypothesis Revisited
Governments in economic hardship that borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under strict conditionalities are commonly expected to scapegoat the Fund to prevent domestic protest and electoral punishment. But we know little about the micro-level mechanisms underpinnings this scapegoating hypothesis. This paper theoretically specifies and empirically assesses two strategies that governments can employ to shape whom citizens hold respons…
The role of IMF programs in aligning national economic policy with domestic preferences
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) promotes reforms emphasizing individual economic freedom and market competition. However, IMF loan conditions face criticism for potentially undermining democracy by encouraging policy shifts that may not reflect citizens’ preferences. We examine how IMF lending impacts economic congruence—the alignment between government policies and public preferences for economic freedom and market competition. Lack of con…
Structural adjustment, partisan alignment, and protest in the developing world
When do IMF programs induce protest? Despite much cross-country research on this question, there is little evidence on how IMF programs affect individual predispositions for protest and protest behavior. This article argues that governments facing IMF conditionality allocate adjustment burdens strategically, protecting their partisan supporters while punishing supporters of the political opposition. This intensification of distributional politics…
War and infant mortality rates
War represents one of the gravest threats to the right to health. A range of international human rights covenants have enumerated the rights of both adults and children to lead full healthy lives, free from the dangers of war. Yet we know remarkably little about how war systematically affects children’s rights to health. We have limited knowledge about if different types of conflict—major interstate and major civil wars—have similar or different …
Partisanship, protection, and punishment
How do governments allocate the burden of adjustment of reform programs sponsored by international financial institutions? While the political economy literature is ripe with theoretical arguments about this issue, we have a limited empirical understanding of the distributional effects of these programs, except for a few informative case studies. We argue that governments allocate adjustment burdens strategically to protect their own partisan sup…
Trade and Strike Activity in the Postwar United States
This paper examines the effect of international trade on strike activity within the United States since World War II. Globalization may influence strike activity through its effects on the bargaining position of labor. Alternatively, if labor and management take their changed bargaining positions into account, the rate of change in openness could create greater uncertainty in negotiations between them and lead to more strikes as a result. Empiric…
Economic Development and the World Bank
We contribute to the research stream examining the effects of World Bank lending programs on economic growth in developing economies. We contend that it is important to distinguish between the short-term effects and extended exposure of countries to these lending programs and also to assess the Bank’s (late 1990s) reforms to improve the effectiveness of these programs in recipient countries to assess whether program lending has any positive impac…
Too Many Cooks
We contribute to the research stream emphasizing the competition between international organizations and citizens for influence over the domestic policy choices of national politicians. Drawing upon previous theoretical and empirical work on the common agency problem, we contend that the joint influence of a country's memberships in multiple international governmental organizations (IGOs) generates consistent, unintended, disruptive effects, whic…
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the strategic shift to forced disappearance
Political leaders not only assess the costs and benefits of repression but also act strategically in their use of particular repression types. Choices amongst repression types depend partly upon leaders being held responsible for their particular actions. The codification of the international human rights regime indicated by broad ratification of the core International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights increases the likelihood of criminal re…
De Facto Judicial Independence and Physical Integrity Rights
Economists, political scientists, and legal scholars have argued that independent judiciaries have an important role to play in promoting economic development and protecting property rights. We argue that judicial independence can also have a positive impact on the protection of human rights. To assess the human rights impact of a de facto independent judiciary, we also argue that scholars must account for the potential of endogeneity between jud…
Unexpected Bedfellows
The WTO system has democratic rights spillovers. In this paper, we show how GATT and WTO rules induce memberstates to advance several democratic rights: specifically political participation, due process and access toinformation. We use qualitative and quantitative tools to examine this process. Our quantitative analysis found thatcountries that have been members of the GATT/WTO for longer periods of time saw statistically significantimprovements …
Human Rights and Structural Adjustment
'Structural adjustment' has been a central part of the development strategy for the 'third world'. Loans made by the World Bank and the IMF have been conditional on developing countries pursuing rapid economic liberalization programmes as it was believed this would strengthen their economies in the long run. M. Rodwan Abouharb and David Cingranelli argue that, conversely, structural adjustment agreements usually cause increased hardship for the p…
A New Dataset on Infant Mortality Rates, 1816-2002
Systematic data on annual infant mortality rates are of use to a variety of social science research programs in demography, economics, sociology, and political science. Infant mortality rates may be used both as a proxy measure for economic development, in lieu of energy consumption or GDP-per-capita measures, and as an indicator of the extent to which governments provide for the economic and social welfare of their citizens. Until recently, data…
The Human Rights Peace
Respect for human rights represents self-imposed restraints on the behavior of a government. These limits signify both a domestic norm and a state that has decided to settle political disputes through nonviolent methods. When these governments interact in the international system, we suspect that their basic norms of behavior will remain and generate relatively peaceful interactions. We test this contention on pairs of all states from 1980 to 200…
The Human Rights Effects of World Bank Structural Adjustment, 1981-2000
Does the implementation of a World Bank structural adjustment agreement (SAA) increase or decrease government respect for human rights? Neoliberal theory suggests that SAAs improve economic performance, generating better human rights practices. Critics contend that the implementation of structural adjustment conditions causes hardships and higher levels of domestic conflict, increasing the likelihood that regimes will use repression. Bivariate pr…
The Human Rights Effects of World Bank Structural Adjustment, 1981-2000
Does the implementation of a World Bank structural adjustment agreement (SAA) increase or decrease government respect for human rights? Neoliberal theory suggests that SAAs improve economic performance, generating better human rights practices. Critics contend that the implementation of structural adjustment conditions causes hardships and higher levels of domestic conflict, increasing the likelihood that regimes will use repression. Bivariate pr…
The Human Rights Peace
Respect for human rights represents self-imposed restraints on the behavior of a government. These limits signify both a domestic norm and a state that has decided to settle political disputes through nonviolent methods. When these governments interact in the international system, we suspect that their basic norms of behavior will remain and generate relatively peaceful interactions. We test this contention on pairs of all states from 1980 to 200…
A New Dataset on Infant Mortality Rates, 1816-2002
Systematic data on annual infant mortality rates are of use to a variety of social science research programs in demography, economics, sociology, and political science. Infant mortality rates may be used both as a proxy measure for economic development, in lieu of energy consumption or GDP-per-capita measures, and as an indicator of the extent to which governments provide for the economic and social welfare of their citizens. Until recently, data…
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the strategic shift to forced disappearance
Political leaders not only assess the costs and benefits of repression but also act strategically in their use of particular repression types. Choices amongst repression types depend partly upon leaders being held responsible for their particular actions. The codification of the international human rights regime indicated by broad ratification of the core International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights increases the likelihood of criminal re…
Partisanship, protection, and punishment
How do governments allocate the burden of adjustment of reform programs sponsored by international financial institutions? While the political economy literature is ripe with theoretical arguments about this issue, we have a limited empirical understanding of the distributional effects of these programs, except for a few informative case studies. We argue that governments allocate adjustment burdens strategically to protect their own partisan sup…
De Facto Judicial Independence and Physical Integrity Rights
Economists, political scientists, and legal scholars have argued that independent judiciaries have an important role to play in promoting economic development and protecting property rights. We argue that judicial independence can also have a positive impact on the protection of human rights. To assess the human rights impact of a de facto independent judiciary, we also argue that scholars must account for the potential of endogeneity between jud…
Trade and Strike Activity in the Postwar United States
This paper examines the effect of international trade on strike activity within the United States since World War II. Globalization may influence strike activity through its effects on the bargaining position of labor. Alternatively, if labor and management take their changed bargaining positions into account, the rate of change in openness could create greater uncertainty in negotiations between them and lead to more strikes as a result. Empiric…
Unlocking Public Support
Does communication about International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs influence citizen support for reforms and the institution itself? Using a survey experiment in Pakistan, we investigate whether emphasizing specific program content—tax increases, budget cuts, or social welfare packages—shifts public opinion. We find that while highlighting adjustment costs like tax hikes and spending cuts reduces program support, emphasizing the continuity of so…
War and infant mortality rates
War represents one of the gravest threats to the right to health. A range of international human rights covenants have enumerated the rights of both adults and children to lead full healthy lives, free from the dangers of war. Yet we know remarkably little about how war systematically affects children’s rights to health. We have limited knowledge about if different types of conflict—major interstate and major civil wars—have similar or different …
Too Many Cooks
We contribute to the research stream emphasizing the competition between international organizations and citizens for influence over the domestic policy choices of national politicians. Drawing upon previous theoretical and empirical work on the common agency problem, we contend that the joint influence of a country's memberships in multiple international governmental organizations (IGOs) generates consistent, unintended, disruptive effects, whic…
The Human Rights Peace
Respect for human rights represents self-imposed restraints on the behavior of a government. These limits signify both a domestic norm and a state that has decided to settle political disputes through nonviolent methods. When these governments interact in the international system, we suspect that their basic norms of behavior will remain and generate relatively peaceful interactions. We test this contention on pairs of all states from 1980 to 200…
The Human Rights Effects of World Bank Structural Adjustment, 1981-2000
Does the implementation of a World Bank structural adjustment agreement (SAA) increase or decrease government respect for human rights? Neoliberal theory suggests that SAAs improve economic performance, generating better human rights practices. Critics contend that the implementation of structural adjustment conditions causes hardships and higher levels of domestic conflict, increasing the likelihood that regimes will use repression. Bivariate pr…
Human Rights and Structural Adjustment
'Structural adjustment' has been a central part of the development strategy for the 'third world'. Loans made by the World Bank and the IMF have been conditional on developing countries pursuing rapid economic liberalization programmes as it was believed this would strengthen their economies in the long run. M. Rodwan Abouharb and David Cingranelli argue that, conversely, structural adjustment agreements usually cause increased hardship for the p…
A New Dataset on Infant Mortality Rates, 1816-2002
Systematic data on annual infant mortality rates are of use to a variety of social science research programs in demography, economics, sociology, and political science. Infant mortality rates may be used both as a proxy measure for economic development, in lieu of energy consumption or GDP-per-capita measures, and as an indicator of the extent to which governments provide for the economic and social welfare of their citizens. Until recently, data…
Unexpected Bedfellows
The WTO system has democratic rights spillovers. In this paper, we show how GATT and WTO rules induce memberstates to advance several democratic rights: specifically political participation, due process and access toinformation. We use qualitative and quantitative tools to examine this process. Our quantitative analysis found thatcountries that have been members of the GATT/WTO for longer periods of time saw statistically significantimprovements …
De Facto Judicial Independence and Physical Integrity Rights
Economists, political scientists, and legal scholars have argued that independent judiciaries have an important role to play in promoting economic development and protecting property rights. We argue that judicial independence can also have a positive impact on the protection of human rights. To assess the human rights impact of a de facto independent judiciary, we also argue that scholars must account for the potential of endogeneity between jud…
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the strategic shift to forced disappearance
Political leaders not only assess the costs and benefits of repression but also act strategically in their use of particular repression types. Choices amongst repression types depend partly upon leaders being held responsible for their particular actions. The codification of the international human rights regime indicated by broad ratification of the core International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights increases the likelihood of criminal re…
Economic Development and the World Bank
We contribute to the research stream examining the effects of World Bank lending programs on economic growth in developing economies. We contend that it is important to distinguish between the short-term effects and extended exposure of countries to these lending programs and also to assess the Bank’s (late 1990s) reforms to improve the effectiveness of these programs in recipient countries to assess whether program lending has any positive impac…
Too Many Cooks
We contribute to the research stream emphasizing the competition between international organizations and citizens for influence over the domestic policy choices of national politicians. Drawing upon previous theoretical and empirical work on the common agency problem, we contend that the joint influence of a country's memberships in multiple international governmental organizations (IGOs) generates consistent, unintended, disruptive effects, whic…
Trade and Strike Activity in the Postwar United States
This paper examines the effect of international trade on strike activity within the United States since World War II. Globalization may influence strike activity through its effects on the bargaining position of labor. Alternatively, if labor and management take their changed bargaining positions into account, the rate of change in openness could create greater uncertainty in negotiations between them and lead to more strikes as a result. Empiric…
War and infant mortality rates
War represents one of the gravest threats to the right to health. A range of international human rights covenants have enumerated the rights of both adults and children to lead full healthy lives, free from the dangers of war. Yet we know remarkably little about how war systematically affects children’s rights to health. We have limited knowledge about if different types of conflict—major interstate and major civil wars—have similar or different …
Partisanship, protection, and punishment
How do governments allocate the burden of adjustment of reform programs sponsored by international financial institutions? While the political economy literature is ripe with theoretical arguments about this issue, we have a limited empirical understanding of the distributional effects of these programs, except for a few informative case studies. We argue that governments allocate adjustment burdens strategically to protect their own partisan sup…
Structural adjustment, partisan alignment, and protest in the developing world
When do IMF programs induce protest? Despite much cross-country research on this question, there is little evidence on how IMF programs affect individual predispositions for protest and protest behavior. This article argues that governments facing IMF conditionality allocate adjustment burdens strategically, protecting their partisan supporters while punishing supporters of the political opposition. This intensification of distributional politics…
Unlocking Public Support
Does communication about International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs influence citizen support for reforms and the institution itself? Using a survey experiment in Pakistan, we investigate whether emphasizing specific program content—tax increases, budget cuts, or social welfare packages—shifts public opinion. We find that while highlighting adjustment costs like tax hikes and spending cuts reduces program support, emphasizing the continuity of so…
The Scapegoating Hypothesis Revisited
Governments in economic hardship that borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under strict conditionalities are commonly expected to scapegoat the Fund to prevent domestic protest and electoral punishment. But we know little about the micro-level mechanisms underpinnings this scapegoating hypothesis. This paper theoretically specifies and empirically assesses two strategies that governments can employ to shape whom citizens hold respons…
The role of IMF programs in aligning national economic policy with domestic preferences
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) promotes reforms emphasizing individual economic freedom and market competition. However, IMF loan conditions face criticism for potentially undermining democracy by encouraging policy shifts that may not reflect citizens’ preferences. We examine how IMF lending impacts economic congruence—the alignment between government policies and public preferences for economic freedom and market competition. Lack of con…
Economics (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · International Development and Aid (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Human rights (7 works) · Government (linguistics (6 works) · Corruption and Economic Development (5 works) · Democracy (4 works)