Social fragmentation, public goods, and local elections:evidence from China

This study examines how the economic effects of local elections in rural China depend on voter heterogeneity, as captured by religious fractionalisation. We first document religious composition and the introduction of village-level elections for a nearly nationally representative sample of over 200 villages. Then, we examine the interaction effect of heterogeneity and the introduction of elections on village government provision of public goods. The interaction effect is robustly negative. We interpret this as evidence that voter heterogeneity constrains the potential benefits of local elections for public goods provision.