Selection vs. accountability: An experimental investigation of campaign promises in a moral-hazard environment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Feltovich, Nick; Giovannoni, Francesco
• 署名单位: Monash University; University of Bristol
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.03.008
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 39-51
• 关键词: Retrospective voting; Prospective voting; political economy; cheap talk; CORRUPTION

摘要

We examine retrospective- and prospective-voting considerations in an experiment implementing a simple voting model. In each period, the official chooses how much rent to appropriate from a social endowment. Announcement of this choice is followed by an election between the official and a randomly selected challenger, with the winner becoming the official in the next period. We vary two features of the setting: (a) the discount factor, and (b) whether candidates can make costless, non-binding campaign promises about their behaviour if elected. Consistent with the model's predictions, both raising the discount factor and introducing campaign promises lead to lower rent appropriation by officials and worse electoral outcomes (other things equal) for incumbents. Campaign promises, despite being cheap talk, have real effects: promising less appropriation is rewarded by voters, but breaking such promises is punished. Finally, we find a weak positive association between campaign promises and officials' subsequent behaviour. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.