Demand for different types of public goods

Evidence from Nigeria

Bibliographic Data

ID9255583
AuthorsAlisha A Kim (Department of Public Policy and Political Economy, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA., corresponding author), Jonas B Bunte (0000-0001-8530-5556, Department of Public Policy and Political Economy, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA.)
Year2018
Volume76
Issue2
Pages259-279
Publication date2018-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of Social Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6764 • E-ISSN: 1470-1162
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00346764.2018.1424930
OpenAlexW2789923871
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited29

Preferences of Nigerian households vary across different types of public goods. For example, some prefer roads while others favor education even after controlling for the existing supply of these goods. What explains this variation? We argue that the perceived distributional consequences of specific public goods differ conditional on the personal characteristics of households. In particular, households demand the type of public good that (a) increases the utility of assets they already own and (b) resonates with their past experiences involving the lack of particular public goods. We test our argument with data on 123,000 Nigerian households. We find strong evidence for our argument across six types of public goods

Argument (complex analysis) · Business · Economics · Microeconomics · Public economics · Public good · Test (biology) · Variation (astronomy) · Economic Policies and Impacts · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics