Local Favoritism in State Formation

This is the replication package for "Local Favoritism in State Formation". An unconstrained strong state can lead to catastrophic outcomes, underscoring the importance of local flexibility in policy implementation. During China’s land reform, southern counties had both cadres from the central government and local cadres, and they showed different attitudes in implementing policies. Using land ruggedness as an instrument, we find that a 10 percentage point increase in the proportion of local cadres led to a 0.8 percent reduction in the share of people classified as exploiters, suggesting more lenient policy implementation. We further find that this local favoritism partially explains regional differences in mortality during the Great Famine.