The effects of ethnic political networks on educational attainment in Africa

Alexander Weinreb, University of Texas at Austin

Since the African independence era, the educational infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has expanded dramatically. In many countries, however, that expansion does not seem to have been equal across regions or ethnic groups. This paper asks whether these within-country inequalities are a product of differential access to ethnic political networks, sometimes referred to as “clientilist” and “neopatrimonial” politics. It merges unique data on the home areas of every African president since independence with Demographic and Health Survey data from 26 countries in SSA. Overall sample size is roughly 270,000 people, though statistical tests are conducted at the district level (N=257-301, depending on the model). Fixed effects models (level of country) and hierarchical linear (multilevel) models. Each controls for what (Horowitz 2000:151) calls “the ethnic distribution of colonial opportunity.” Initial results show limited main effects but considerable heterogeneity in the effects of political power across countries.