Mining and the Quality of Public Services : The Role of Local Governance and Decentralization

Konte, Maty ; Vincent, Rose Camille

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: MINING;    PUBLIC SERVICES;    LOCAL GOVERNANCE;    DECENTRALIZATION;    EXPECTATIONS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9385
RP-ID  :  WPS9385

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper investigates the localeffects of mining on the quality of public services and onpeople's optimism about their future living conditions.It also assesses the mediating role of local institutionsand local governments~^!!^ taxing rights in shaping theproximity-to-mine effects. The empirical framework connectsmore than 130,000 respondents from the Afrobarometer surveydata (2005-2015) to their closest mines based on thegeolocation coordinates of the enumeration areas (EA) anddata on the mines and their respective status from the SNLMetals & Mining. The geo-referenced data are matchedwith new indicators on local governments~^!!^ taxing rightsacross the African continent. The results suggest thatcitizens living near an active mine are less likely toapprove government performance in key public goods andservices -- including health, job creation and improvingliving standards of the poor. On the mediating role of localgovernance and local taxing rights, the findings point to anegative effect of local corruption, yet a positive effectof local authorities’ discretion over tax and revenues.However, the positive marginal effect of local taxing powerstends to reduce in environments with poor quality of localgovernance, high incidence of bribe payment and low level oftrust in local government officials. Residents of miningcommunities with low corruption and comparatively high-levelof raising revenue ability have the highest rate of positiveappraisal compared to the other scenarios.