Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T11:31:25.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

VOTE-BUYING AND GROWTH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2011

Hans Gersbach  and
Felix Mühe
Hans Gersbach*
Affiliation:
Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich and CEPR
Felix Mühe
Affiliation:
Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich
*
Address correspondence to: Hans Gersbach, Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland; e-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Vote-buying is widely used by parties in developing countries to influence the outcome of elections. We examine the impact of vote-buying on growth. We consider a model with a poverty trap where redistribution can promote growth. We show that vote-buying contributes to the persistence of poverty as taxed wealthy people buy votes from poor people. We then show that there exists a democratic constitution that breaks vote-buying and promotes growth. Such a constitution involves rotating agenda setting, a taxpayer-protection rule, and repeated voting. The latter rule makes vote-buying prohibitively costly.

Keywords

Vote-BuyingPolitical EconomyPoverty TrapsEconomic DevelopmentVoting RulesRepeated Voting
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , November 2011 , pp. 656 - 680
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, D., Egorov, Georgy, and Sonin, Konstantin (2009) Do juntas lead to personal rule? American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 99 (2), 298–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aghion, P., Alesina, Alberto, and Trebbi, Francesco (2004) Endogenous political institutions. Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (2), 565–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aghion, P. and Bolton, Patrick (2003) Incomplete social contracts. Journal of the European Economic Association 1 (1), 38–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Azariadis, C. (1996) The economics of poverty traps: One. Complete markets. Journal of Economic Growth 1 (4), 449–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Azariadis, C. and Stachurski, John (2005) Poverty traps. In Aghion, Philippe and Durlauf, Steven N. (eds.), Handbook of Economic Growth, Vol. 1, Chap. 5, pp. 295–384. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Baron, D.P. and Ferejohn, John A. (1989) Bargaining in legislatures. American Political Science Review 83 (4), 1181–1206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barro, R.J. (2000) Inequality and growth in a panel of countries. Journal of Economic Growth 5 (1), 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basu, K. and Tzannatos, Zafiris (2003) The global child labor problem: What do we know and what can we do? World Bank Economic Review 17 (2), 147–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basu, K. and Van, Pham Hoang (1998) The economics of child labor. American Economic Review 88, 412–427.Google Scholar
Bell, C. and Gersbach, Hans (2009) Child labor and the education of a society. Macroeconomic Dynamics 13 (2), 220–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brender, A. and Drazen, Allan (2009) Consolidation of new democracy, mass attitudes and clientelism. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 99 (2), 304–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, J.M. and Tullock, Gordon (1962) The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Dekel, E., Jackson, Matthew O., and Wolinsky, Asher (2008) Vote buying: General elections. Journal of Political Economy 116 (2), 351–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Docquier, F. and Tarbalouti, Essaïd (2001) Bribing votes: A new explanation to the “inequality–redistribution” puzzle in LDC's. Public Choice 108 (3–4), 259–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duflo, E. (2005) Why political reservations? Journal of the European Economic Association 3 (2–3), 668–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, B.S. and Stutzer, Alois (2006) Strengthening the citizens' role in international organizations. Review of International Organizations 1 (1), 27–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, O. and Zeira, Joseph (1993) Income distribution and macroeconomics. Review of Economic Studies 60 (1), 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gersbach, H. (2004) Dividing resources by flexible majority rules. Social Choice and Welfare 23 (2), 295–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gersbach, H. (2011) On the limits of democracy. Social Choice and Welfare, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Gersbach, H. and Kleinschmidt, T. (2009) Power to youth: Designing democracy for long-term well-being. Mathematical Social Sciences 58 (2), 158–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gersbach, H. and Siemers, Lars-H.R. (2005) Can Democracy Educate a Society? Discussion Paper 1693. Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groseclose, T. and Snyder, James M. Jr. (1996) Buying supermajorities. American Political Science Review 90 (2), 303–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicken, A.D. (2002) The Market for Votes in Thailand. Paper presented at the conference “Trading Political Rights: The Comparative Politics of Vote Buying,” MIT.Google Scholar
Jafarey, S. and Lahiri, Sajal (2001) Child labour: Theory, policy and evidence. World Economics 2 (1), 69–93.Google Scholar
Morton, S. (1988) Strategic voting in repeated referenda. Social Choice and Welfare 5 (1), 45–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, D.C., Tollison, Robert D., and Willet, Thomas W. (1972) Representative democracy via random selection. Public Choice 12 (1), 57–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeiffer, S. (2004) Vote buying and its implications for democracy: Evidence from Latin America. In Global Corruption Report 2004, pp. 76–83. Transparency International. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Rigger, S. (2002) Weighing a Shadow: Toward a Technique for Estimating the Effects of Vote-Buying in Taiwan. Paper presented at the conference “Trading Political Rights: The Comparative Politics of Vote Buying,” MIT.Google Scholar
Robinson, J.A. and Torvik, Ragnar (2009) The real swing voter's curse. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 99 (2), 310–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffer, F.C. (2004) Vote buying in East Asia. In Global Corruption Report 2004, pp. 83–87. Transparency International. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Schaffer, F.C. (2006) What is vote buying? In Schaffer, F.C. (ed.), Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying. Boulder, CO, and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Schelling, T.C. (1960) The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press.Google Scholar
Slovakia. (1992) Constitution of the Slovak Republic. Available at http://slovakia.eunet.sk/slovakia/history-politics/slovak-constitution.txt.Google Scholar
Tajikistan. (1995) Law of the Republic of Tajikistan and Constitutional Law of Republic of Tajikistan on a Referendum in Republic of Tajikistan. Available at http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/election/tajikistan/reflaw.html.Google Scholar