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Who monitors the monitor? : effect of party observers on electoral outcomes

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  • Casas, Agustin
  • Díaz, Guillermo
  • Trindade, Andre

Abstract

We show that monitoring by individuals with preferences regarding the outcome of the supervised task interferes with the task's process: the monitors bias the results in favor of their own preferences. In particular, using an original dataset from the 2011 national elections in Argentina, we exploit a (quasi) natural experiment to show that electoral observers with partisan preferences cause a 1.7% to 7% increase in the vote count of the observers' preferred party. This bias, which appears under various electoral rules, concentrates in municipalities with lower civic capital (Guiso et al. (2010)) and weakens the accountability role of elections.

Suggested Citation

  • Casas, Agustin & Díaz, Guillermo & Trindade, Andre, 2014. "Who monitors the monitor? : effect of party observers on electoral outcomes," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1419, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    • Handle: RePEc:cte:werepe:we1419
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    Cited by:

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    3. Juan Rosas-Munoz & José Antonio Carrillo-Viramontes, 2022. "Abundance of Resources and Incentives for Collusion in Fisheries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Nicolas Ajzenman & Ruben Durante, 2019. "Salience and Accountability: School Infrastructureand Last-Minute Electoral Punishment," School of Government Working Papers wp_gob_2019_3, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.

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