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Winners and Losers of Early Elections: On the Welfare Implications of Political Blockades and Early Elections

Author

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  • Felix Bierbrauer

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)

  • Lydia Mechtenberg

    (TU Berlin)

Abstract

We develop a dynamic model of political competition. Each party has a policymotivated ideological wing and an office-motivated opportunistic wing. A blockade arises if inner-party conflict stops policy implementation. We use this model to study whether early elections should be used to overcome a blockade. They have the advantage that urgent decisions are no longer delayed, and the disadvantage that unsuccessful governments gain additional time in office. This may give rise to a time inconsistency. Voters are in favour of a constitution without early elections. However, in the middle of a political crisis, they are willing to abandon it.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Bierbrauer & Lydia Mechtenberg, 2008. "Winners and Losers of Early Elections: On the Welfare Implications of Political Blockades and Early Elections," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2008_50, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2008_50
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jussi Keppo & Lones Smith & Dmitry Davydov, 2006. "Optimal Electoral Timing: Exercise Wisely and You May Live Longer," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1565, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
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    7. Alastair Smith, 1996. "Endogenous Election Timing In Majoritarian Parliamentary Systems," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 85-110, July.
    8. Balke, Nathan S, 1990. "The Rational Timing of Parliamentary Elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 201-216, June.
    9. Kayser, Mark Andreas, 2005. "Who Surfs, Who Manipulates? The Determinants of Opportunistic Election Timing and Electorally Motivated Economic Intervention," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 99(1), pages 17-27, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fu, Qiang & Li, Ming, 2014. "Reputation-concerned policy makers and institutional status quo bias," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 15-25.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    early elections; political blockades; ideological rigidities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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