Rebecca Simson
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 999778 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Rebecca Simson |
| PRENOMES | Rebecca |
| SOBRENOME | Simson |
| ASSINATURA | SIMSON R |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9840-4729 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 11 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 14 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 11 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2019 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
Is Kenya's gender wealth gap narrowing? New insights from probate records
This article introduces a new dataset on individuals leaving inheritances in Kenya, which sheds light on the country's marked gender disparities in the ownership of wealth. An estimated 9% of decedents in Kenya leave estates that undergo probate or administration. Since the 1980s, men have been four times more likely than women to leave such estates at death. But this gender estate gap has been narrowing. The share of women leaving wealth at deat…
Elite persistence in Sierra Leone
Is elite persistence weaker in Africa than in other parts of the world, given historical barriers to intergenerational inheritance of status, such as limited private property rights and frequent economic and political crises? In the absence of linked intergenerational data, we use name analysis to address this question. Using surnames associated with two Sierra Leonean elites, Krio descendants of settlers and members of chiefly lineages, we measu…
Colonial legacies and wealth inequality in Kenya
This article discusses the evolution of Kenya's wealth distribution from the late 1950s to the present. Utilizing previously untapped probate and administration sources, it measures the share of Kenyans leaving estates at death, and maps how this wealth-owning strata has changed over time. It shows a growth in African estates after independence, and by the 1980s roughly 8 % of Kenyans left estates at death, largely a consequence of land titling a…
Diversity and liberalisation reforms
Regional inequality in university attainment in seven African countries since 1960
The Rise and Fall of the Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie
In 1961, Frantz Fanon scathingly characterised the emerging African elite as a bourgeoisie of the civil service. Many have since described Africa's public sector employees as a rentier class that grew disproportionately large in relation to the continent's underdeveloped private sector. Is this characterisation still accurate? Using educational data and household budget surveys from Kenya and Tanzania, this article situates public sector employee…
The global significance of national inequality decline
Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with…
Ethnic favouritism in Kenyan education reconsidered
Does a leader's ethnicity affect the regional distribution of basic services such as education in Africa? Several influential studies have argued in the affirmative, by using educational attainment levels to show that children who share the ethnicity of the president during their school-aged years have higher attainment than their peers. In this paper we revisit this empirical evidence and show that it rests on problematic assumptions. Some model…
Statistical sources and African post-colonial economic history
While interest in African economic history has grown rapidly in recent years, the continent’s post-colonial past remains understudied. This is at least in part because of the decline and fragmentation in the publication of economic statistics after decolonization, which has limited the type and breadth of quantitative analysis that can be undertaken. Nonetheless, this note argues that there are comparatively untapped post-colonial data sources th…
Ethnic (in)equality in the public services of Kenya and Uganda
The unfair distribution of public sector jobs is a common grievance in many societies, but arguably more so in ethnically polarized ones. Using census data from Kenya and Uganda, two countries with a history of ethnic conflict, this article examines how public employment is allocated in multi-ethnic societies by studying the correlates of holding public sector jobs. The results demonstrate that the public services of Kenya and Uganda are first an…
Africa's clientelist budget policies revisited
What can be learned about policy prioritization in Africa by examining long-run trends in public expenditure and employment? Many have contended that Africa's post-colonial leaders pursued economically unproductive budget policies that prioritized the growth of their patronage networks over socially beneficial spending, resulting in bloated payrolls, persistent deficits, and a large rent-seeking public service. Using a purpose-built dataset of an…
The global significance of national inequality decline
Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with…
Africa's clientelist budget policies revisited
What can be learned about policy prioritization in Africa by examining long-run trends in public expenditure and employment? Many have contended that Africa's post-colonial leaders pursued economically unproductive budget policies that prioritized the growth of their patronage networks over socially beneficial spending, resulting in bloated payrolls, persistent deficits, and a large rent-seeking public service. Using a purpose-built dataset of an…
Elite persistence in Sierra Leone
Is elite persistence weaker in Africa than in other parts of the world, given historical barriers to intergenerational inheritance of status, such as limited private property rights and frequent economic and political crises? In the absence of linked intergenerational data, we use name analysis to address this question. Using surnames associated with two Sierra Leonean elites, Krio descendants of settlers and members of chiefly lineages, we measu…
Ethnic (in)equality in the public services of Kenya and Uganda
The unfair distribution of public sector jobs is a common grievance in many societies, but arguably more so in ethnically polarized ones. Using census data from Kenya and Uganda, two countries with a history of ethnic conflict, this article examines how public employment is allocated in multi-ethnic societies by studying the correlates of holding public sector jobs. The results demonstrate that the public services of Kenya and Uganda are first an…
Regional inequality in university attainment in seven African countries since 1960
Ethnic favouritism in Kenyan education reconsidered
Does a leader's ethnicity affect the regional distribution of basic services such as education in Africa? Several influential studies have argued in the affirmative, by using educational attainment levels to show that children who share the ethnicity of the president during their school-aged years have higher attainment than their peers. In this paper we revisit this empirical evidence and show that it rests on problematic assumptions. Some model…
Statistical sources and African post-colonial economic history
While interest in African economic history has grown rapidly in recent years, the continent’s post-colonial past remains understudied. This is at least in part because of the decline and fragmentation in the publication of economic statistics after decolonization, which has limited the type and breadth of quantitative analysis that can be undertaken. Nonetheless, this note argues that there are comparatively untapped post-colonial data sources th…
Ethnic (in)equality in the public services of Kenya and Uganda
The unfair distribution of public sector jobs is a common grievance in many societies, but arguably more so in ethnically polarized ones. Using census data from Kenya and Uganda, two countries with a history of ethnic conflict, this article examines how public employment is allocated in multi-ethnic societies by studying the correlates of holding public sector jobs. The results demonstrate that the public services of Kenya and Uganda are first an…
Africa's clientelist budget policies revisited
What can be learned about policy prioritization in Africa by examining long-run trends in public expenditure and employment? Many have contended that Africa's post-colonial leaders pursued economically unproductive budget policies that prioritized the growth of their patronage networks over socially beneficial spending, resulting in bloated payrolls, persistent deficits, and a large rent-seeking public service. Using a purpose-built dataset of an…
The Rise and Fall of the Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie
In 1961, Frantz Fanon scathingly characterised the emerging African elite as a bourgeoisie of the civil service. Many have since described Africa's public sector employees as a rentier class that grew disproportionately large in relation to the continent's underdeveloped private sector. Is this characterisation still accurate? Using educational data and household budget surveys from Kenya and Tanzania, this article situates public sector employee…
The global significance of national inequality decline
Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with…
Ethnic favouritism in Kenyan education reconsidered
Does a leader's ethnicity affect the regional distribution of basic services such as education in Africa? Several influential studies have argued in the affirmative, by using educational attainment levels to show that children who share the ethnicity of the president during their school-aged years have higher attainment than their peers. In this paper we revisit this empirical evidence and show that it rests on problematic assumptions. Some model…
Regional inequality in university attainment in seven African countries since 1960
Diversity and liberalisation reforms
Elite persistence in Sierra Leone
Is elite persistence weaker in Africa than in other parts of the world, given historical barriers to intergenerational inheritance of status, such as limited private property rights and frequent economic and political crises? In the absence of linked intergenerational data, we use name analysis to address this question. Using surnames associated with two Sierra Leonean elites, Krio descendants of settlers and members of chiefly lineages, we measu…
Colonial legacies and wealth inequality in Kenya
This article discusses the evolution of Kenya's wealth distribution from the late 1950s to the present. Utilizing previously untapped probate and administration sources, it measures the share of Kenyans leaving estates at death, and maps how this wealth-owning strata has changed over time. It shows a growth in African estates after independence, and by the 1980s roughly 8 % of Kenyans left estates at death, largely a consequence of land titling a…
Is Kenya's gender wealth gap narrowing? New insights from probate records
This article introduces a new dataset on individuals leaving inheritances in Kenya, which sheds light on the country's marked gender disparities in the ownership of wealth. An estimated 9% of decedents in Kenya leave estates that undergo probate or administration. Since the 1980s, men have been four times more likely than women to leave such estates at death. But this gender estate gap has been narrowing. The share of women leaving wealth at deat…
Economics (10 obras) · Political science (9 obras) · Development economics (8 obras) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (6 obras) · Demographic economics (6 obras) · Economic growth (6 obras) · Geography (6 obras) · Law (6 obras) · Sociology (5 obras) · Ethnic group (4 obras)