While the salience of ethnicity as a factor in African politics has been documented in the literature, less is known about its impacts on economic development. Using data from Ethiopia, we study the developmental impacts of ethnically asymmetric political representation. We find that enhanced political representation improves access to public goods. Moreover, regional disparities of access to public goods due to improved political representation are more pronounced in rural than in urban areas. To complement our empirical analysis, we construct a theoretical model that suggests potential mechanisms through which public goods provision favors regions with better political representation.

尽管文献中已经记载了种族作为非洲政治因素的重要性，但对其对经济发展的影响却知之甚少。利用埃塞俄比亚的数据，我们研究了种族不对称政治代表性的发展影响。我们发现，政治代表性的增强可以改善获得公共产品的机会。此外，由于政治代表性的提高，农村地区获得公共产品的地区差异比城市地区更为明显。为了补充我们的实证分析，我们构建了一个理论模型，该模型提出了公共产品供应有利于政治代表性更好的地区的潜在机制。