Elite Capture, Political Voice and Exclusion from Aid: An Experimental Study
Abstract
We experimentally study the influence of local information conditions on elite capture and social exclusion in community-based development schemes with heterogeneous groups. Not only information on the distribution of aid resources through community-based schemes, but also information on who makes use of an available punishment mechanism through majority voting may be important. The main results are the following. First, many rich community representatives try to satisfy a political majority who would then abstain from using the punishment mechanism, and exclude those community members whose approval is then not required. The frequency of this exclusion strategy is highest with private information on the distribution and public voting. Second, when voting is public, responders are more reluctant to make use of the punishment mechanism, and representatives who follow the exclusion strategy are more inclined to exclude the poorest responder. Third, punishment is largely ineffective as it induces rich representatives to capture all economic resources. Fourth, if a poor agent takes the representative’ role, punishment rates drop, efficiency increases, and final distributions become more equal.Download Info
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Paper provided by Maastricht : METEOR, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization in its series Research Memoranda with number 024.Length:
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:dgr:umamet:2008024
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Web page: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/UMPublications.htm
Related research
Keywords: microeconomics ;Other versions of this item:
- D'Exelle, Ben & Riedl, Arno, 2008. "Elite Capture, Political Voice and Exclusion from Aid: An Experimental Study," IZA Discussion Papers 3673, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Ben D'Exelle & Arno Riedl, 2008. "Elite Capture, Political Voice and Exclusion from Aid: An Experimental Study," CESifo Working Paper Series 2400, CESifo Group Munich.
- C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
- D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Ben D'Exelle & Els Lecoutere & Bjorn Van Campenhout, 2010. "Social status and bargaining when resources are scarce: Evidence from a field lab experiment," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) 10-09, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
- Theesfeld, Insa & Pirscher, Frauke (ed.), 2011. "Perspectives on institutional change - water management in Europe," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Central and Eastern Europe, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO), volume 58, number 109519, February.
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