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Title: Identifying the Rich: Civil Registration and State-Building in Tanzania

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2018

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Abstract: Much of the world's poor remain invisible and uncounted by their governments. What affects the willingness of governments to register their citizens, and the decision by citizens to be seen? I argue that an exclusionary logic underpins civil registration in much of the developing world due to fiscal and political incentives to prioritise registering the rich over the poor. The rich will only select into registration, however, when the returns to identity formalisation are structured to provide benefits by gatekeeping access to 'regressive' goods and services. This results in striking inequalities in formal identification and de facto access to the state. Drawing on evidence from Tanzania, I leverage a natural experiment arising from district-level reforms to compulsory birth registration. In a difference-indifferences framework I show these reforms led to substantial increases in registration, especially among elites. Then, using these reforms as an instrument for the possession of a birth certificate, I provide causal evidence on the returns to registration. These are substantial but narrowly targeted: registered citizens are more likely to work in the formal economic sector, have bank accounts, and pay taxes.

Url: http://africanpoliticsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/draft_APCG.pdf

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Authors: Bowles, Jeremy

Publisher: Harvard University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Other

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