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Quantifying Parliamentary Representation of Constituents' Preferences with Quasi-Experimental Data

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  • David Stadelmann
  • Marco Portmann
  • Reiner Eichenberger

Abstract

We assess the effect of constituents’ preferences on legislators’ decisions within a quasiexperimental setting: In the Swiss referendum process, citizens and legislators reveal their preferences for legislative proposals. We match roll call votes of all Swiss legislators on 102 legislative proposals with revealed constituents’ preferences on exactly the same issues from 1996 to 2008. The setting allows us to quantify the quality of parliamentary representation and we identify conditions which affect convergence between constituents’ preferences and legislators’ decisions. Results show that a legislator’s probability to accept a law proposal increases by 16.8 percentage points when district voters accept the proposal.

Suggested Citation

  • David Stadelmann & Marco Portmann & Reiner Eichenberger, 2011. "Quantifying Parliamentary Representation of Constituents' Preferences with Quasi-Experimental Data," CREMA Working Paper Series 2011-02, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2011-02
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political Representation; Constituents’ Preferences; Spatial Voting Models; Referenda;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations

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