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Do Elections Always Motivate Incumbents? Learning vs. Career Concerns

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  • Le Borgne, Eric
  • Lockwood, Ben

Abstract

This paper studies a principal-agent model of the relationship between officeholder and the electorate, where everyone is initially uninformed about the officeholder’s ability. If office-holder effort and ability interact in the determination of performance in office, then an office-holder has an incentive to learn i.e. raise effort so that performance becomes a more accurate signal of her ability. Elections reduce the learning effect, and the reduction in this effect may more than offset the positive “career concerns” effect of elections on effort. Moreover, when this occurs, appointment of officials may welfare-dominate elections

Suggested Citation

  • Le Borgne, Eric & Lockwood, Ben, 2004. "Do Elections Always Motivate Incumbents? Learning vs. Career Concerns," Economic Research Papers 269608, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uwarer:269608
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.269608
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political Economy; Public Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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