Regime Stability and the Persistence of Traditional Practices
研究了为何女性割礼这一有害传统在某些国家持续存在而在其他国家被根除，发现当人们相信政府足够稳定、能提供长期替代方案时，更愿意放弃传统。基于23国1970-2013年数据，政治政权持久性每增加一个标准差，新割礼女性比例下降0.1个标准差。
Abstract I examine why the harmful tradition of female genital mutilation (FGM) persists in certain countries but in others it has been eradicated. People are more willing to abandon their traditions if they are confident that the government is durable enough to set up long-term replacements for them. Using a country-ethnicity panel data set spanning 23 countries from 1970 to 2013 and artificial partition of African ethnic groups by national borders, I show that a one-standard-deviation larger increase in political regime durability leads to a 0.1-standard-deviation larger decline in the share of newly circumcised women, conditional on the presence of an anti-FGM government policy.