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Outside Income and Moral Hazard: The Elusive Quest for Good Politicians

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Author Info
Gagliarducci, Stefano () (CEMFI, Madrid)
Nannicini, Tommaso () (Bocconi University)
Naticchioni, Paolo () (University of Rome La Sapienza)

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Abstract

In most modern democracies elected officials can work in the private sector while appointed in parliament. We show that when the political and market sectors are not mutually exclusive, a trade-off arises between the quality of elected officials and the effort they exert in political life. If high-ability citizens can keep earning money outside of parliament, they will be more likely to run for election; for the same reason, they will also be more likely to shirk once elected. These predictions are confronted with a unique dataset about members of the Italian Parliament from 1996 to 2006. The empirical evidence shows that bad but dedicated politicians come along with good but not fully committed politicians. There is in fact a non-negligible fraction of citizens with remarkably high pre-election income who are appointed in parliament. These citizens are those who gain relatively more from being elected in terms of outside income. Conversely, they are less committed to the parliamentary activity in many respects, like voting attendance and bills sponsorship.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3295.

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Date of creation: Jan 2008
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3295

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Related research
Keywords: politicians; moral hazard; adverse selection; absenteeism; outside income;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism

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References listed on IDEAS
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. Andrea Brandolini, 1999. "The Distribution of Personal Income in Post-War Italy: Source Description, Data Quality, and the Time Pattern of Income Inequality," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 58(2), pages 183-239, September.
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    Other versions:
  4. Mattozzi, Andrea & Merlo, Antonio, 2007. "Political Careers or Career Politicians?," CEPR Discussion Papers 6164, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Gagliarducci, Stefano & Nannicini, Tommaso & Naticchioni, Paolo, 2008. "Electoral Rules and Politicians’ Behavior: A Micro Test," IZA Discussion Papers 3348, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Caselli, Francesco & Morelli, Massimo, 2004. "Bad politicians," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 759-782, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Benabou, Roland & Tirole, Jean, 2003. "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior," IDEI Working Papers 389, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Jan 2006. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Timothy Besley, 2005. "Political Selection," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 43-60, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Couch, Jim F & Atkinson, Keith E & Shughart, William F, II, 1992. " Ethics Laws and the Outside Earnings of Politicians: The Case of Alabama's "Legislator-Educators."," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 135-45, March.
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  12. Panu Poutvaara & Tuomas Takalo, 2004. "Candidate Quality," Public Economics 0406009, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Daniel Diermeier & Michael Keane & Antonio Merlo, 2005. "A Political Economy Model of Congressional Careers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 347-373, March. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Michael P. Keane & Antonio Merlo, 2007. "Money, Political Ambition, and the Career Decisions of Politicians," PIER Working Paper Archive 07-016, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  15. Messner, Matthias & Polborn, Mattias K., 2004. "Paying politicians," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2423-2445, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
    • Matthias Messner & Mattias Polborn, 2003. "Paying Politicians," Working Papers 246, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
  16. Mattozzi, Andrea & Merlo, Antonio, 2007. "Mediocracy," CEPR Discussion Papers 6163, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    • Andrea Mattozzi & Antonio Merlo, 2007. "Mediocracy," NBER Working Papers 12920, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Gagliarducci, Stefano & Nannicini, Tommaso & Naticchioni, Paolo, 2008. "Electoral Rules and Politicians’ Behavior: A Micro Test," IZA Discussion Papers 3348, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Becker, Johannes & Peichl, Andreas & Rincke, Johannes, 2007. "Politicians? outside earnings and electoral competition," FiFo-CPE Discussion Papers - Finanzwissenschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 08-3, University of Cologne, CPE - Cologne Center for Public Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Antonio Merlo & Vincenzo Galasso & Massimiliano Landi & Andrea Mattozzi, 2008. "The Labor Market of Italian Politicians," Working Papers 15-2008, Singapore Management University, School of Economics, revised Oct 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Antonio Merlo & Vincenzo Galasso & Massimiliano Landi & Andrea Mattozzi, 2008. "the Labor Market of Italian Politicians, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 09-024, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 May 2009. [Downloadable!]
  5. Galasso, Vincenzo & Nannicini, Tommaso, 2009. "Competing on Good Politicians," IZA Discussion Papers 4282, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  6. Kotakorpi, Kaisa & Poutvaara, Panu, 2009. "Pay for Politicians and Candidate Selection: An Empirical Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 4235, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Ferraz, Claudio & Finan, Frederico, 2008. "Motivating Politicians: The Impacts of Monetary Incentives on Quality and Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 3411, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Stefano Gagliarducci & Tommaso Nannicini, 2008. "Do Better Paid Politicians Perform Better? Disentangling Incentives from Selection," Working Papers 346, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Eggers, Andy & Hainmueller, Jens, 2008. "MPs for Sale? Estimating Returns to Office in Post-War British Politics," MPRA Paper 7892, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-23.

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