Measuring government effectiveness and its consequences for social welfare in Sub-Saharan African countries

<p>&nbsp;</p><p>We introduce a method for measuring effective government and modeling its consequences&nbsp;for social welfare at the individual level. Our focus is on the experiences of&nbsp;citizens living in African countries where famine remains a serious threat. If a government&nbsp;is effective, it will be able to deliver goods that individuals need to improve their&nbsp;social welfare. At a minimum, effective governments facilitate reliable access to food&nbsp;for its citizens. We assess this conception of effective government via a multi-level&nbsp;model from 17 sub-Saharan countries sampled in 2005 by Afrobarometer. We find&nbsp;that citizens who live in regions and in countries with a civil bureaucracy, reliable law&nbsp;enforcement and good infrastructure enjoy higher levels of food security than those&nbsp;who live in regions with weaker institutional penetration.</p>