| The question motivating this work is: how do changing economic circumstances influence citizens' political engagement and perceptions of the state? My dissertation unpacks the "endogenous" relationship between economic development and democracy by measuring the effect of expanding market access on individual political behavior. To this end, I employ a field experiment to test the influence of economic development on political engagement. The paper extends the experimental evidence with ethnographic fieldwork, original surveys and spatial analysis, all undertaken in the Philippines. Together, the quantitative research design and extensive qualitative fieldwork offer a window into the thoughts of individual voters caught in the crosshairs of market formalization. The study finds - in contrast to the view that economic growth increases democratic prospects - that increased access to financial markets may initially decrease political participation in developing democracies. |
