The Historical Roots of Social Participation in Public Infrastructure:Evidence from Rural Irrigation Construction
This study determines the long-term impact of the construction of non-government-managed irrigation facilities throughout history on current villagers'participation in public affairs.Empirical results indicate that villagers'participation in the construction and management of irrigation facilities persistently shapes and affects their current participation in public affairs.Using the exogenous shock of state control over nearly all irrigation facilities during collectivization and individuals'exposure to the policy,as determined by personal birth cohorts,to construct a difference-in-differences model,and employing the primary and secondary terms of historical annual rainfalls as instrumental variables,it is noted that the estimates are consistent with the baseline results.The work also indicates that the rural culture induced by irrigation and trust serves as the underlying action mechanism.These findings contribute to understanding the historical roots of current villagers'public participation and shed some light on how to modernize rural governance based on the history.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
