Hidden Handshakes: Political Connectivity, Informal Institutions, and Unequal Prosperity

Building on Hartman et al. (2018), who found that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in rural Liberia led to persistent reductions in violence but mixed effects on property rights—especially advantaging politically connected individuals—this idea proposes a cross-country, longitudinal study of how political connectivity mediates the prosperity gains from informal institutional reforms. By combining qualitative interviews with econometric analysis, the study would uncover whether engineered informal institutions inadvertently entrench elite advantages, thus creating new forms of inequality in “long-run prosperity.” This diverges from current literature by directly interrogating the distributional impacts and sustainability of institutional engineering, rather than treating prosperity as a homogenous community outcome. The findings could reshape how NGOs, international organizations, and governments approach institutional interventions for equitable, enduring prosperity.

References:

1. Engineering Informal Institutions: Long-Run Impacts of Alternative Dispute Resolution on Violence and Property Rights in Liberia. Alexandra C. Hartman, R. Blair, C. Blattman (2018). Journal of Politics.