Protest Matters: The Effects of Protests on Economic Redistribution
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Date
2023-11Author
Archibong, Belinda
Moerenhout, Tom
Osabuohien, Evans
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Abstract
Can citizen-led protests lead to meaningful economic redistribution and nudge governments to
increase their efforts to redistribute fiscal resources? We study the effects of protests on fiscal
redistribution using evidence from Nigeria. We digitised 26 years of public finance data from
1988 to 2016 to examine the effects of protests on intergovernmental transfers. We find that
protests increase transfers to protesting regions, but only in areas that are politically aligned with
disbursing governments. Protesters also face increased police violence. Non-protest conflicts do
not affect transfers and protests do not affect non-transfer revenue. The results show that
protests can influence fiscal redistribution.