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Vote-Buying and Reciprocity

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  • Frederico Finan
  • Laura A. Schechter

Abstract

While vote-buying is common, little is known about how politicians determine who to target. We argue that vote-buying can be sustained by an internalized norm of reciprocity. Receiving money engenders feelings of obligation. Combining survey data on vote-buying with an experiment-based measure of reciprocity, we show that politicians target reciprocal individuals. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of social preferences in determining political behavior.

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File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17411.pdf
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 17411.

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Date of creation: Sep 2011
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Publication status: published as Frederico Finan & Laura Schechter, 2012. "Vote‐Buying and Reciprocity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(2), pages 863-881, 03.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17411
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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
  • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
  • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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Cited by:

  1. Aidt, Toke & Asatryan, Zareh & Badalyan, Lusine & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2015. "Vote buying or (political) business (cycles) as usual?," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-017, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
  2. Hopfensitz, Astrid & Miquel-Florensa, Josepa, 2014. "How forced displacement flows affect public good contributions: The social consequences of conflict in Colombia," TSE Working Papers 14-463, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Jun 2015.
  3. Silvia Pisica & Nicoleta Caragea, 2013. "Statistical Overview Of The International Labor Migration In Romania," Working papers 08, Ecological University of Bucharest, Department of Economics.
  4. Catalina Tejada & Eliana Ferrara & Henrik Kleven & Florian Blum & Oriana Bandiera & Michel Azulai, 2015. "State Effectiveness, Growth, and Development," Working Papers id:6668, eSocialSciences.
  5. Liang, Pinghan & Meng, Juanjuan, 2013. "Love me, love my dog: an experimental study on social connections and indirect reciprocity," MPRA Paper 45270, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  6. Fortunato, Piergiuseppe & Panizza, Ugo, 2011. "Democracy, education and the quality of government," POLIS Working Papers 155, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  7. Cesi Cruz & Philip Keefer & Julien Labonne, 2016. "Incumbent Advantage, Voter Information and Vote Buying," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 94877, Inter-American Development Bank.
  8. Miquel Pellicer & Eva Wegner & Lindsay Benstead & Harold Kincaid & Ellen Lust & Juanita Vasquez, 2014. "The demand side of clientelism: The role of client's perceptions and values," SALDRU Working Papers 140, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
  9. de Janvry, Alain & Gonzalez-Navarro, Marco & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2014. "Are land reforms granting complete property rights politically risky? Electoral outcomes of Mexico's certification program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 216-225.
  10. Maggian, Valeria & Montinari, Natalia & Nicolò, Antonio, 2015. "Backscratching in Hierarchical Organizations," Working Papers 2015:10, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  11. Khemani, Stuti, 2015. "Buying votes versus supplying public services: Political incentives to under-invest in pro-poor policies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 84-93.
  12. repec:tse:wpaper:27881 is not listed on IDEAS
  13. Trindade, Andre & Díaz, Guillermo & Casas, Agustin, 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.
  14. Labonne, Julien, 2013. "The local electoral impacts of conditional cash transfers," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 73-88.
  15. Kallbekken, Steffen & Garcia, Jorge H. & Korneliussen, Kristine, 2013. "Determinants of public support for transport taxes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 67-78.
  16. Marek Hanusch & Philip Keefer & Razvan Vlaicu, 2016. "Vote Buying or Campaign Promises?: Electoral Strategies When Party Credibility is Limited," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 95120, Inter-American Development Bank.
  17. Chuang, Yating & Schechter, Laura, 2015. "Stability of experimental and survey measures of risk, time, and social preferences: A review and some new results," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 151-170.

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