The impact of monitoring on politicians' attendance: Evidence from the Swiss Upper House

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hofer, Katharina E.; da Fonseca, Mariana Lopes
• 署名单位: University of St Gallen; University of St Gallen
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105235
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: Attendance; absenteeism; monitoring; TRANSPARENCY; voting; Parliament

摘要

In 2014, the Swiss Upper House switched from voting by show of hands to an electronic voting system, where individual decisions on specific exogenously defined vote types are published automatically. We leverage this update in monitoring technology for select votes to identify the impact of monitoring on politicians' attendance within a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences methodology. Relying on video recordings of all sessions of the 49th Upper House legislature (2011-2015), we determine pre- and post-reform attendance rates during all votes and compare the change in attendance between votes affected and unaffected by the reform. Monitoring has a positive and significant effect on attendance particularly among legislators running for reelection, as compared to those retiring at the end of the term.