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Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia

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Benjamin A. Olken
Abstract

This paper presents an experiment where 48 Indonesian villages were randomly assigned to choose development projects through either representative-based meetings or direct election-based plebiscites. Plebiscites resulted in dramatically higher satisfaction among villagers, increased knowledge about the project, greater perceived benefits, and higher reported willingness to contribute. Changing the political mechanism had much smaller effects on the actual projects selected, with some evidence that plebiscites resulted in projects chosen by women being located in poorer areas. The results show that direct participation in political decision making can substantially increase satisfaction and legitimacy, even when it has little effect on actual decisions.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14123.

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Date of creation: Jun 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14123

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D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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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. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Natural Field Experiments 0028, The Field Experiments Website. [Downloadable!]
  2. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 2002. "Participation and Development: Perspectives from the Comprehensive Development Paradigm," Review of Development Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 6(2), pages 163-82, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Benjamin A. Olken, 2007. "Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115, pages 200-249. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Pranab Bardhan, 2002. "Decentralization of Governance and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 185-205, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Acemoglu, Daron, 2003. "Why not a political Coase theorem? Social conflict, commitment, and politics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 620-652, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. John G. Matsusaka, 2005. "Direct Democracy Works," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 185-206, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Seema Jayachandran, 2006. "Selling Labor Low: Wage Responses to Productivity Shocks in Developing Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(3), pages 538-575, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. John Matsusaka, 2005. "The eclipse of legislatures: Direct democracy in the 21st century," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 157-177, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Chikako Yamauchi, 2008. "Community-based Targeting and Initial Local Conditions: Evidence from Indonesia’s IDT Program," CEPR Discussion Papers 584, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
  2. Luca Corazzini & Sebastian Kube & Michel André Maréchal & Antonio Nicoló, 2009. "Elections and Deceptions: Theory and Experimental Evidence," IEW - Working Papers iewwp421, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
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