Dr. Gerrit J. Gonschorek

• Journal Articles
• Books
• Book chapters
• Other publications

Journal Articles

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2021

• Gonschorek, Gerrit
  Subnational Favoritism in Development Grant Allocations – Empirical Evidence from Decentralized Indonesia
  2021 World Dev, volume: 139
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  Abstract

  Are public grant allocations biased toward the birth districts of governors, and, if so, what explains this favoritism? The allocation of budget authority to local government officials is a common trend around the developing world, but it is often criticized for transferring favoritism from the center to lower government levels. Using a unique panel data set of 410 Indonesian districts for the period 2005–2013, I exploit the discretionary nature of a government grant and data from a large amount of asynchronous local direct elections to investigate whether the birthplace of the provincial governor determines fund allocation to the district level. I show that birth districts of incumbent governors receive significantly larger shares of discretionary grants compared with the other districts within a province. I find that local favoritism is driven by governors with political history in the district office of their birth district and is limited by local electoral accountability. Classical pork-barrel politics, however, as reelection motives or formal political party ties to the district administration, do not explain local favoritism. These results illustrate the importance of non-discretionary institutional grant design and local democratization reforms in Indonesia’s political system. The country is a young democracy characterized by low ideological cleavages, little party loyalty, and the prevalence of money politics in its decentralized fiscal system. These features characterize a number of developing countries, yet contrast sharply to the established democracies for which subnational favoritism has been analyzed.

2018

• Gonschorek, Gerrit, Schulze, Günther G.
  Continuity or Change? Indonesia’s Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer System under Jokowi
  2018 J Southeast Asian St, volume: 35, issue: 2, pages: 143 - 164
• Gonschorek, Gerrit, Schulze, Günther G., Sjahrir, Bambang S.
  To the ones in need or the ones you need? The Political Economy of Central Discretionary Grants: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia
  2018 Eur J Polit Econ, volume: 54, pages: 240 - 260

Books

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2021

• Faculty for Economics and Behavioral Sciences
  The Political Economy of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers: Why Institutional Design Matters - Evidence from Decentralized Indonesia
  Gonschorek, Gerrit

Book chapters

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2019

• Schulze G, Gonschorek G
  Continuity or Change? Indonesia’s Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer System under Jokowi
  In: The Indonesian Economy in Transition: Policy Challenges in the Jokowi Era and Beyond
  2019, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Hal Hill, Siwage Dharma Negara, pages: 87 - 120, Hal Hill, Siwage Dharma Negara, ISBN: ISBN: 978-981-4843-06-5

Other publications

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2021

• Gonschorek, Gerrit
  Rules versus Discretion: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia’s Intergovernmental Transfer System
  IEP Discussion Paper Series, University of Freiburg, issue: 40, 2021

2020

• Gonschorek, Gerrit J.
  Subnational Favoritism in Development Grant Allocations –Empirical Evidence from Decentralized Indonesia
  IEP Discussion Paper Series No. 38, University of Freiburg, 2020

2018

• Gonschorek, Gerrit J., Sjahrir, Bambang S., Schulze, Günther G.
  To the ones in need or the ones you need? The Political Economy of Central Discretionary Grants − Empirical Evidence from Indonesia
  IEP Discussion Paper Series No. 36, University of Freiburg, 2018