Essays on Business and Politics in Resource-abundant, Low-income Countries

This dissertation examines links between politics and businesses in resource-abundant, low-income countries. I argue that privatizations and the awarding of property rights do not separate business and politics per se. Instead, they shift the way these two spheres interact. Whether this shift leads to socio-economic development, depends on the re-spective implementation of property rights. Each chapter of this dissertation examines therefore with quantitative methods on a micro level how powerful actors control, allocate and regulate assets in the private sector. Chapter One and Two explore the phenomenon of cronyism, where firms and politicians engage in trades to obtain mutual benefits in the case of Mozambique, a country that established market oriented reforms and experi-enced a resource fuelled FDI bonanza from 2009 onwards. The first chapter focuses on business partnerships or co-investment as a means for politicians to gain private benefits from holding political office. Chapter Two focuses on political selection and finds that the ruling elite in an electoral autocracy constructs and co-opts the emerging business elites into positions of raising economic sector. Chapter Three examines whether the awarding of mining licenses in the DRC and its neighboring countries reduces the link between the economic value of a mine and local levels of conflict. This chapter identifies property rights gaps as an important constraint to such formalization efforts and underscores the necessity for independent stakeholders to monitor the design and enforcement of property rights.