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The Personal Vote and the Efficacy of Education Spending

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  • Allen Hicken
  • Joel W. Simmons

Abstract

In this article we explore the ways in which incentives to cultivate a personal vote affect the efficiency of education spending in developing democracies. We argue that where the electoral system provides incentives for political particularism, resources are allocated less efficiently and the effect of increased spending on literacy is diminished. We test our hypotheses using data on education spending and performance in over 40 developing democracies since 1980. We find that though personal vote systems spend just as much on education as party vote systems, particularism in personal vote systems dampens the marginal effect of increased education spending on illiteracy and at its highest levels, incentives to cultivate a personal vote completely undermine the positive effects of increased education spending on literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Allen Hicken & Joel W. Simmons, 2008. "The Personal Vote and the Efficacy of Education Spending," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 109-124, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:52:y:2008:i:1:p:109-124
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00302.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Leopoldo Fergusson & Horacio Larreguy & Juan Felipe Riaño, 2022. "Political Competition and State Capacity: Evidence from a Land Allocation Program in Mexico," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(648), pages 2815-2834.
    2. Bousmah, Marwân-al-Qays & Ventelou, Bruno & Abu-Zaineh, Mohammad, 2016. "Medicine and democracy: The importance of institutional quality in the relationship between health expenditure and health outcomes in the MENA region," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(8), pages 928-935.
    3. Hicken, Allen & Leider, Stephen & Ravanilla, Nico & Yang, Dean, 2018. "Temptation in vote-selling: Evidence from a field experiment in the Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Hélia Costa, 2016. "Pork barrel as a signaling tool: the case of US environmental policy," GRI Working Papers 225, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    5. Cavalcanti, Francisco, 2018. "Voters sometimes provide the wrong incentives. The lesson of the Brazilian drought industry," MPRA Paper 88317, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Geiguen Shin & Byong‐Kuen Jhee, 2021. "Better service delivery, more satisfied citizens? The mediating effects of local government management capacity in South Korea," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 42-67, January.
    7. José Antonio Cheibub & Monika Nalepa, 2020. "Revisiting electoral personalism," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(1), pages 3-10, January.
    8. Denis Rey & Joshua Ozymy, 2019. "A political–institutional explanation of environmental performance in Latin America," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 295-311, December.
    9. Paniagua, Victoria, 2022. "When clients vote for brokers: How elections improve public goods provision in urban slums," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Charles J Finocchiaro & Jeffery A Jenkins, 2016. "Distributive politics, the electoral connection, and the antebellum US Congress: The case of military service pensions," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 28(2), pages 192-224, April.
    11. José Antonio Cheibub & Gisela Sin, 2020. "Preference vote and intra-party competition in open list PR systems," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(1), pages 70-95, January.
    12. Marwa Sahnoun & Chokri Abdennadher, 2022. "Returns to Investment in Education in the OECD Countries: Does Governance Quality Matter?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1819-1842, September.

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