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Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon
Full text linkI combine household surveys, national accounts and personal income tax records for the 2005-2014 period to produce the first estimates of the national income distribution in Lebanon. I find that income is extremely concentrated, with the top 1 and 10% of the adult population receiving 25 and 55% of national income on average, placing Lebanon among the countries with the highest level of income inequality in the world. These figures, which are the first recent statistics on income inequality in an Arab country, question the view of Lebanon as a paragon of economic success in the Middle East. The dynamism of the tourism, banking and real-estate sectors has benefited only a minority of the population, while a large part still lives in extreme poverty
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Charismatic Leaders and Nation Building
No full textCan leaders shape identity and legitimize new political orders? I address this question by studying the role of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey, in spreading a new national identity. Using a generalized difference-in-differences design, which exploits time and geographic variation in Kemal’s visits to cities, I test whether exposure to a charismatic leader affects citizens’ take-up of the new Turkish identity. I find that people living in cities visited are more likely to embrace the common identity, as proxied by the adoption of first names in "Pure Turkish", the new language introduced by the state. I also show that Kemal was more efficient in making people use the new language, compared to Ismet Inonu, the Prime Minister and Kemal’s second man, suggesting that he had an idiosyncratic effect. I find that the effect is mostly driven by cities where he met with local elites, rather than the mass, and are not driven by places that had a nationalist club during the Ottoman Empire. Overall, the findings are consistent with the Weberian view that charismatic authority can induce others to follow and legitimize new political orders
Charismatic Leaders and Nation Building
No full textCan leaders shape identity and legitimize new political orders? I address this question by studying the role of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey, in spreading a new national identity. Using a generalized difference-in-differences design, which exploits time and geographic variation in Kemal’s visits to cities, I test whether exposure to a charismatic leader affects citizens’ take-up of the new Turkish identity. I find that people living in cities visited are more likely to embrace the common identity, as proxied by the adoption of first names in "Pure Turkish", the new language introduced by the state. I also show that Kemal was more efficient in making people use the new language, compared to Ismet Inonu, the Prime Minister and Kemal’s second man, suggesting that he had an idiosyncratic effect. I find that the effect is mostly driven by cities where he met with local elites, rather than the mass, and are not driven by places that had a nationalist club during the Ottoman Empire. Overall, the findings are consistent with the Weberian view that charismatic authority can induce others to follow and legitimize new political orders
Essais sur l’économie politique du développement du Moyen-Orient
No full textCette thèse étudie deux dimensions de l'économie politique du développement du Moyen-Orient, en utilisant une perspective historique et contemporaine. Les deux premiers chapitres analysent les inégalités de patrimoine et de revenu au Liban entre 2005 et 2014 et au niveau régional entre 1990 et 2016. Le troisième chapitre se penche sur le processus de construction nationale et étudie le rôle du leader comme vecteur de propagande nationaliste dans le contexte historique turc. Dans le premier chapitre, je combine de manière systématique des données d'enquête, les comptes nationaux et les seules données fiscales disponibles au Moyen-Orient pour estimer pour la première fois la répartition du revenu national dans un pays arabe: le Liban. Entre 2005 et 2014, la répartition des revenus estimée est très inégalitaire: les 1 et 10% les plus riches du pays reçoivent respectivement 25 et 55% du revenu national total, faisant du Liban l'un des pays les plus inégalitaires au monde. Ces niveaux extrêmes d'inégalités confirment une large littérature, principalement en sciences politiques, décrivant les différents mécanismes par lesquels l'économie politique du pays dans son ensemble et en particulier le mode de gouvernance confessionnel ont permis à la classe politique de se maintenir au pouvoir et d'extraire des rentes colossales aux dépens de la majorité des citoyens depuis des décennies. Le deuxième chapitre combine de manière systématique des données d'enquête, les comptes nationaux, des données fiscales et des données sur les patrimoines provenant des recensements de la richesse des milliardaires dans 15 pays du Moyen-Orient afin d'estimer la répartition des revenus dans la région entre 1990 et 2016. Le Moyen-Orient apparaît comme la région la plus inégalitaire au monde, avec les 10% des individus les plus riches qui reçoivent près de 64% de l'ensemble du revenu national, alors qu'ils reçoivent 37% de ces revenus en Europe de l'Ouest, 47% aux Etats-Unis, et 55% au Brésil. Ce niveau extrême d'inégalités s'explique à la fois par un niveau élevé d'inégalités entre pays (en particulier entre pays richement dotés en pétrole et pays densément peuplés mais sans resources pétrolières) et par d'importantes inégalités au sein de chaque pays, probablement encore largement sous-estimées du fait du manque de données fiscales. Le troisième chapitre analyse le rôle que peut avoir un leader dans la construction d'une identité nationale. J'étudie les activités et l'héritage de Mustafa Kemal "Atatürk", le fondateur de la Turquie moderne grâce à une nouvelle base de données historique contenant des informations sur les lieux et dates des visites officielles d'Atatürk dans plus d'un quart des villes turques entre 1923 et 1938. En utilisant la variation géographique et temporelle de ces visites, je trouve que les visites d'Atatürk ont augmenté de 10% de l'usage des prénoms en "Pur turc", le nouveau language crée par l'état afin d'homogénéiser sa population. Cette mesure permet de mesurer indirectement l'arrivée locale de la nouvelle identité nationale promue par le gouvernement kémaliste. Ces résultats s'expliquent par deux mécanismes. Tout d'abord, les visites ont permis la création d'institutions locales, puisqu'elles prédisent l'ouverture de branches du parti d'Atatürk dix ans après ses visites. Deuxièmement, l'effet est plus fort dans les districts qui avaient plus d'associations nationalistes pendant l'ère Ottomane, un plus haut taux d'alphabétisation, et où Atatürk a rencontré les élites locales, ce qui suggère que sa capacité à coopter et coordonner les élites locales a joué un rôle primordial. Ces résultats apportent de nouvelles évidences sur les mécanismes par lesquels un individu peut contribuer à la légitimation d'un nouvel ordre national.This PhD dissertation analyzes two dimensions of the political economy of develop- ment of the Middle East, from a contemporary and a historical perspective. The first two chapters have a particular focus on income and wealth inequality in Lebanon and in the region as a whole. The third chapter analyzes one aspect of nation-building: the role of leadership as a propaganda tool, in the context of Turkey. In the first Chapter, I combine household surveys, national accounts and unique personal income tax records to produce the first estimates of the national income distribution in an Arab country, Lebanon. I find that income is extremely concentrated over the 2005-2014 period: The top 1 and 10% of the adult population received almost 25 and 55% of national income on average, placing Lebanon among the countries with the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Results are robust to various sensitivity analyses. The extreme level of inequality found questions the long-lasting narrative of the ”Lebanese economic miracle” that showcases the country as a paragon of economic success in the Middle East. They also confirm results from a large literature, mostly in political science, that emphasizes how the Lebanese sectarian-based mode of governance has allowed the ruling elite to extract large rents on most economic activities at the ex- pense of the majority of citizens for several decades. In the second Chapter, realized in collaboration with Facundo Alvaredo and Thomas Piketty, we combine household surveys, national accounts, income tax data and wealth data in order to estimate income concentration in the Middle East for the period 1990- 2016. According to our benchmark series, the Middle East appears to be the most un- equal region in the world, with a top decile income share as large as 64%, compared to 37% in Western Europe, 47% in the US and 55% in Brazil. This is due both to enormous inequality between countries (particularly between oil-rich and population-rich countries) and to large inequality within countries (which we probably under-estimate, given the limited access to proper fiscal data). We stress the importance of increasing transparency on income and wealth in the Middle East, as well as the need to develop mechanisms of regional redistribution and investment. Finally, in the third Chapter, I investigate the role of leadership in constructing a national identity. I study the activities and legacy of Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk”, the founder of modern Turkey. I create a novel historical database containing information on the locations and dates of Atatürk’s propaganda visits to over a quarter of Turkish cities between 1923 and 1938. Using variation over time and across space, and information on incidental visits to districts lying along Atatürk’s road, I find that Atatürk’s visits caused an increase of 10% in the use of first names in “Pure Turkish”, the new language introduced by the state as part of its homogenizing endeavor. I argue that this measure indicates a successful diffusion of the new national identity locally. The effect is persistent, growing in magnitude up until fifteen years after the visit before disappearing. Two main channels can explain this pattern of propagation. First, the visits provided the ground for institutional reforms, as they led to the formation of local branches of Atatürk’s party. Second, the effect is stronger in districts with more nationalistic associations, higher literacy rates and where Atatürk met with local elites, suggesting that co-optation of the elite is a key driver of the effect. My findings provide new evidence on the ability of an individual leader to construct a national identity, by rallying the elite and by fostering institution building, which in turn contribute to influencing people more broadly
Charismatic Leaders and Nation Building
No full textCan leaders shape identity and legitimize new political orders? I address this question by studying the role of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey, in spreading a new national identity. Using a generalized difference-in-differences design, which exploits time and geographic variation in Kemal’s visits to cities, I test whether exposure to a charismatic leader affects citizens’ take-up of the new Turkish identity. I find that people living in cities visited are more likely to embrace the common identity, as proxied by the adoption of first names in "Pure Turkish", the new language introduced by the state. I also show that Kemal was more efficient in making people use the new language, compared to Ismet Inonu, the Prime Minister and Kemal’s second man, suggesting that he had an idiosyncratic effect. I find that the effect is mostly driven by cities where he met with local elites, rather than the mass, and are not driven by places that had a nationalist club during the Ottoman Empire. Overall, the findings are consistent with the Weberian view that charismatic authority can induce others to follow and legitimize new political orders
Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon
No full textI combine household surveys, national accounts and personal income tax records for the 2005-2014 period to produce the first estimates of the national income distribution in Lebanon. I find that income is extremely concentrated, with the top 1 and 10% of the adult population receiving 25 and 55% of national income on average, placing Lebanon among the countries with the highest level of income inequality in the world. These figures, which are the first recent statistics on income inequality in an Arab country, question the view of Lebanon as a paragon of economic success in the Middle East. The dynamism of the tourism, banking and real-estate sectors has benefited only a minority of the population, while a large part still lives in extreme poverty
Charismatic Leaders and Nation Building
No full textCan leaders shape identity and legitimize new political orders? I address this question by studying the role of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey, in spreading a new national identity. Using a generalized difference-in-differences design, which exploits time and geographic variation in Kemal’s visits to cities, I test whether exposure to a charismatic leader affects citizens’ take-up of the new Turkish identity. I find that people living in cities visited are more likely to embrace the common identity, as proxied by the adoption of first names in "Pure Turkish", the new language introduced by the state. I also show that Kemal was more efficient in making people use the new language, compared to Ismet Inonu, the Prime Minister and Kemal’s second man, suggesting that he had an idiosyncratic effect. I find that the effect is mostly driven by cities where he met with local elites, rather than the mass, and are not driven by places that had a nationalist club during the Ottoman Empire. Overall, the findings are consistent with the Weberian view that charismatic authority can induce others to follow and legitimize new political orders
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