Can Market Failure Cause Political Failure
Abstract
We study how inefficiencies of market failure may be further amplified by political choices made by interest groups created in the inefficient market. We take an occupational choice framework, where agents are endowed heterogeneously with wealth and talent. In our model, market failure due to unobservability of talent endogenously creates a class structure that affects voting on institutional reform. In contrast to the world without market failure where the electorate unanimously vote in favour of surplus maximising institutional reform, we find that the preferences of these classes are often aligned in ways that creates a tension between surplus maximising and politically feasible institutional reforms.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 8533.Length:
Date of creation: Aug 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8533
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Related research
Keywords: adverse selection; asset liquidation; market failure; occupational choice; political failure; property rights;Other versions of this item:
- Ghatak, Maitreesh & Aney, Madhav S & Morelli, Massimo, 2013. "Can Market Failure Cause Political Failure?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 121, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
- Madhav S, Aney & Maitreesh Ghatak & Massimo Morelli, 2011. "Can Market Failure Cause Political Failure?," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 029, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
- O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- O16 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
- O17 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2011-08-22 (All new papers)
- NEP-CDM-2011-08-22 (Collective Decision-Making)
- NEP-POL-2011-08-22 (Positive Political Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease 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.:
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- Ghatak, M. & Guinnane, T.W., 1998. "The Economics of Lending with Joint Liability: Theory and Practice," Papers 791, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
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"The political cost of reforms,"
Economics Working Papers
1250, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Jun 2011.
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- Alessandra Bonfiglioli & Gino Gancia, 2010. "The Political Cost of Reforms," Working Papers 507, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
- Gino Gancia & Alessandra Bonfiglioli, 2012. "The Political Cost of Reforms," 2012 Meeting Papers 291, Society for Economic Dynamics.
- Bonfiglioli, Alessandra & Gancia, Gino A, 2011. "The Political Cost of Reforms," CEPR Discussion Papers 8421, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Galor, Oded & Zeira, Joseph, 1993. "Income Distribution and Macroeconomics," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 35-52, January.
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- Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-37, October.
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