Eli Berman, Michael Callen, Clark Gibson, James D. Long and Arman Rezaee. “Elections and Government Legitimacy in Afghanistan” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 168, 2019, 292-317.
Abstract:
"Elections can enhance state legitimacy. One way is by improving citizens’ attitudes toward government, thereby increasing their willingness to comply with rules and regulations. We investigate whether reducing fraud in elections improves attitudes toward government in a fragile state. A large, randomly assigned fraud-reducing intervention in Afghan elections leads to improvement in two indices, one measuring attitudes toward their government, and another measuring stated willingness to comply with governance. Thus, reducing electoral fraud may offer a practical, cost-effective method of enhancing governance in a fragile state."