Do migrant remittances have state de-legitimizing tendencies? A micro-survey based evidence from Africa

Figures & data

Table A1. Summary statistics

VARIABLES	N	Mean	SD	MIN	MAX
Dependent variables
Legitimacy index	120,089	11.40	2.830	3	15
Tax compliance	96,120	3.591	0.807	0	4
Tax Morale Index	121,782	3.772	1.203	1	5
Civil disobedience	124,495	0.613	0.876	0	4
Bribe for Document	62,588	0.301	0.698	0	3
Bribe police	48,217	0.404	0.843	0	3
Control variables
Remit (0,1)	125,900	0.200	0.400	0	1
Lived Poverty Index	126,051	1.183	0.930	0	4
Levels of Education	126,993	3.393	2.191	0	9
Employment	126,920	1.321	1.309	0	5
Incumbency support Index	126,046	1.965	0.965	0	4
Public Goods index	122,563	3.202	1.708	0	6
Crime Victimization Index	127,231	0.161	0.538	0	4
Age	126,796	37.02	14.68	18	110
Gender (male dummy)	127,471	0.498	0.500	0	1

Table A2. Remittances and state legitimacy

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Remit (0,1)	−0.174***	−0.157***	−0.159***	−0.162***
	(0.046)	(0.044)	(0.038)	(0.038)
Levels of education		0.028***	0.030***	0.029***
		(0.010)	(0.009)	(0.009)
Employment Status		0.027*	0.029**	0.038***
		(0.015)	(0.012)	(0.012)
Lived Poverty Index		−0.177***	−0.159***	−0.155***
		(0.032)	(0.026)	(0.026)
Local public goods		−0.021	0.017	0.016
		(0.014)	(0.012)	(0.011)
Incumbency support Index		0.442***	0.468***	0.475***
		(0.032)	(0.027)	(0.027)
Crime Victimization		−0.112***	−0.106***	−0.100***
		(0.027)	(0.024)	(0.024)
Age of Respondent		0.007***	0.006***	0.006***
		(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Male dummy		0.041**	0.044**	0.043**
		(0.018)	(0.017)	(0.018)
Observations	118,772	111,196	111,196	111,196
R-squared	0.001	0.031	0.056	0.057
Controls	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Country FE	No	No	Yes	Yes
Survey Wave FE	No	No	No	Yes
Survey rounds	4,6,7	4,6,7	4,6,7	4,6,7

Notes: The dependent variable is a state legitimacy index at the individual level. Standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered at the regional level. The estimates are from OLS. *** p$<$0.01, ** p$<$0.05, * p$<$0.1.

Table A3. Estimates from propensity score matching

Dependent Variable: Legitimacy index
Sample	Estimate	Difference (ATT)
Treated	11.2767696
Untreated (Control)	11.4752618
		−.198492235***
		S.E (.029947143)
		T-stat (−6.63)
	Matching Quality	Common Support
	Off support	On support
Treated	3	22,152
Untreated (Control)	0	89,041

Notes: The propensity scores are calculated from the respondent’s levels of education, employment status, lived poverty index, incumbency support index, crime victimization index, age, gender (a male dummy), local public goods index, country of the respondent, and years of surveys rounds. *** p$<$0.01, ** p$<$0.05, * p$<$0.1.

Table A4. Robustness Checks

VARIABLES	(1)Tax Morale	(2)Tax compliance	(3)Legitimacy Index	(4)Legitimacy Index
Remit (0,1)	−0.050***	−0.112***		−0.159***
	(0.014)	(0.015)		(0.046)
Remittance			−0.037***
			(0.012)
Observations	112,615	88,845	111,196	71,384
R-squared	0.051	0.041	0.057	0.067
Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Country FE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Survey Wave FE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Survey rounds	4,6,7	4,6,7	4,6,7	4,6

Notes: Controls include the respondent’s levels of education, employment status, lived poverty index, incumbency support index, crime victimization index, age, gender (a male dummy), and local public goods index. Standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered at the regional level. Standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered at the regional level. *** p$<$0.01, ** p$<$0.05, * p$<$0.1.

Table A5. Mechanisms

VARIABLES	(1)Civil Disobedience	(2)Bribe for document	(3)Bribe police
Remit (0,1)	0.141***	0.121***	0.106***
	(0.024)	(0.014)	(0.016)
Remit (0,1)*ISI	−0.020**
	(0.009)
Observations	114,882	57,728	44,206
R-squared	0.059	0.088	0.105
Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes
Country FE	Yes	Yes	Yes
Survey Wave FE	Yes	Yes	Yes
Survey rounds	4,6,7	4,6,7	4,6,7

Notes: Controls include the respondent’s levels of education, employment status, lived poverty index, incumbency support index, crime victimization index, age, gender (a male dummy), and local public goods index. Standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered at the regional level. *** p$<$0.01, ** p$<$0.05, * p$<$0.1.