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Emergence and Persistence of Inefficient States

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Author Info
Daron Agemoglu
Davide Ticchi
Andrea Vindigni

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Abstract

Inefficiencies in the bureaucratic organization of the state are often viewed as important factors in retarding economic development. Why certain societies choose or end up with such inefficient organizations has received very little attention, however. In this paper, we present a simple theory of the emergence and persistence of inefficient states. The society consists of rich and poor individuals. The rich are initially in power, but expect to transition to democracy, which will choose redistributive policies. Taxation requires the employment of bureaucrats. We show that, under certain circumstances, by choosing an inefficient state structure, the rich may be able to use patronage and capture democratic politics. This enables them to reduce the amount of redistribution and public good provision in democracy. Moreover, the inefficient state creates its own constituency and tends to persist over time. Intuitively, an inefficient state structure creates more rents for bureaucrats than would an efficient state structure. When the poor come to power in democracy, they will reform the structure of the state to make it more efficient so that higher taxes can be collected at lower cost and with lower rents for bureaucrats. Anticipating this, when the society starts out with an inefficient organization of the state, bureaucrats support the rich, who set lower taxes but also provide rents to bureaucrats. We show that in order to generate enough political support, the coalition of the rich and the bureaucrats may not only choose an inefficient organization of the state, but they may further expand the size of bureaucracy so as to gain additional votes. The model shows that an equilibrium with an inefficient state is more likely to arise when there is greater inequality between the rich and the poor, when bureaucratic rents take intermediate values and when individuals are sufficiently forward-looking.

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Paper provided by LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies in its series LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series with number 54.

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Length: 61 pages
Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cca:wplabo:54

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Related research
Keywords: bureaucracy; corruption; democracy; patronage politics; political economy; public goods; redistributive politics.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism
H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion
H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Grosjean, Pauline & Senik, Claudia, 2008. "Why Populist Democracy Promotes Market Liberalization," IZA Discussion Papers 3527, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Naritomi, Joana & Soares, Rodrigo R. & Assunção, Juliano J., 2009. "Institutional Development and Colonial Heritage within Brazil," IZA Discussion Papers 4276, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  3. Sarmistha Pal & Sugata Ghosh, 2008. "The Elite and the Marginalised: an Analysis of Public Spending on Mass Education in the Indian States," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 08-15, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Bruhn, Miriam & Gallego, Francisco A., 2008. "Good, bad, and ugly colonial activities : studying development across the Americas," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4641, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Vindigni, Andrea, 2008. "Uncertainty and the politics of employment protection," P.O.L.I.S. department's Working Papers 106, Department of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS. [Downloadable!]
  6. Paolo Ghirardato & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci, 2007. "Revealed Ambiguity and Its Consequences: Updating," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 44, Collegio Carlo Alberto. [Downloadable!]
  7. Guido Tabellini, 2007. "Institutions and Culture," Working Papers 330, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
  8. Ciro Biderman & Glauco P. da Silva, 2007. "Estimating The Impact Of Participatory Budget On Observed Outcomes," Anais do XXXV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 35th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 070, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pósgraduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics]. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Andrea Vindigni, 2008. "Uncertainty and the Politics of Employment Protection," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 77, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Joana Naritomi & Rodrigo R. Soares & Juliano J. Assunção, 2007. "Rent Seeking and the Unveiling of 'De Facto' Institutions: Development and Colonial Heritage within Brazil," NBER Working Papers 13545, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Itzhak Gilboa & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci & David Schmeidler, 2008. "Objective and Subjective Rationality in a Multiple Prior Model," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 73, Collegio Carlo Alberto, revised 2008. [Downloadable!]
  18. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2009. "State Capacity, Conflict and Development," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 010, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  19. Daron Acemoglu & Victor Chernozhukov & Muhamet Yildiz, 2007. "Learning and Disagreement in an Uncertain World," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 48, Collegio Carlo Alberto. [Downloadable!]
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  20. Vindigni, Andrea, 2008. "Uncertainty and the Politics of Employment Protection," Papers 05-27-2008, Princeton University, Research Program in Political Economy. [Downloadable!]
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