Pan-African Research Journal Africa
Published October 21, 2026 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Interdisciplinary Urban Development Sociology of Municipal Cemetery Plot Allocation Waiting Lists and Household Burial Site Substitution in Lagos's Peri-Urban Wards: A Bunching Estimation of Queue Thresholds

Authors/Creators

  • 1. University of Ibadan

Description

Municipal cemetery systems in rapidly urbanising African cities allocate scarce plots through waiting lists whose administrative thresholds are rarely analysed as behavioural parameters. The framework treats the administrative waiting-list cutoff as a notch that generates excess mass in the distribution of queue durations, and it links that excess mass to household decisions to substitute alternative burial sites when the expected wait exceeds a household-specific reservation threshold. Because no plot-allocation microdata are available for Lagos, the paper specifies the estimator, states its identifying assumptions, and calibrates the bunching window using the DHS Program indicator 'Children under five living in households using adequately iodized salt' (id CN_MIAC_C_IOD) across 31 African countries and 58 country-survey observations from 2010 to 2024, which serves here as a methodological illustration of distributional shape rather than as a substantive finding about cemetery queues. The calibrated distribution has a mean of 80.559 and a standard deviation of 20.146, with country values ranging from 20.30 in Mauritania to 99.60 in Kenya.

Notes

Published in African Urban Development Studies (Interdisciplinary -, vol 27, issue 2, pp 57-70. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23541909. A Pan-African Research Journals (PARJ Africa) publication, https://parj.africa

Files

article.pdf

Files (641.8 kB)

Name Size
md5:9cf536bd54d28d5c55e07a49ef3e4f1e
204.5 kB Download
md5:850f23e58e53d313fadd47c498ed80ea
437.3 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Related works

Is identical to
Journal article: https://parj.africa/ajis_urbandev/article/view/interdisciplinary-urban-development-sociology-of-municipal (URL)

References

  • Amin, A. (2014). Cemetery capacity and urban expansion in Lagos. African Urban Quarterly, 12(3), 45-67.
  • Burchardt, M. (2013). Faith-based social services and urban governance in Africa. Journal of Religion in Africa, 43(2), 145-172.
  • Card, D., Lee, D. S., Pei, Z., & Weber, A. (2015). Inference on causal effects in a generalized regression kink design. Econometrica, 83(6), 2453-2483.
  • Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Olsen, T., & Pistaferri, L. (2011). Adjustment costs, firm responses, and micro vs. macro labor supply elasticities: Evidence from Danish tax records. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(2), 749-804.
  • De Witte, M. (2003). Money and death in Asante society. Africa, 73(2), 287-310.
  • DHS Program. (2024). Demographic and Health Surveys: Children under five living in households using adequately iodized salt (id CN_MIAC_C_IOD). ICF International.
  • Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. Routledge.
  • Einav, L., Finkelstein, A., & Schrimpf, P. (2015). The response of drug expenditure to nonlinear contract design: Evidence from Medicare Part D. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(2), 841-899.
  • Francis, D., Kellaher, L., & Neophytou, G. (2005). The secret cemetery. Berg.
  • Geschiere, P. (2005). Funerals and belonging: The politics of autochthony in Cameroon. African Studies Review, 48(2), 1-24.
  • Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Polity Press.
  • Grant, R. (2009). Globalizing city: The urban and economic transformation of Accra, Ghana. Syracuse University Press.
  • Kleven, H. J. (2016). Bunching. Annual Review of Economics, 8, 435-464.
  • Kleven, H. J., & Waseem, M. (2013). Using notches to uncover optimization frictions and structural elasticities: Theory and evidence from Pakistan. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(2), 669-723.
  • Lentz, C. (2013). Land, mobility, and belonging in West Africa. Indiana University Press.
  • Mazzucato, V., Kabki, M., & Smith, L. (2006). Transnational migration and the economy of funerals: Changing practices in Ghana. Development and Change, 37(5), 1047-1072.
  • Myers, G. (2011). African cities: Alternative visions of urban theory and practice. Zed Books.
  • Owusu, G. (2017). Coping with urban sprawl in Ghana. Journal of Urban Affairs, 39(4), 512-529.
  • Rao, V. (2019). Urban governance and the politics of burial in Africa. African Affairs, 118(471), 245-268.
  • Rugg, J. (2000). Defining the place of burial: What makes a cemetery a cemetery? Mortality, 5(3), 259-275.
  • Saez, E. (2010). Do taxpayers bunch at kink points? American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2(3), 180-212.