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Electoral Systems and Inequalities in Government Interventions

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  • Garance Genicot
  • Laurent Bouton
  • Micael Castanheira

Abstract

This paper studies the political determinants of inequality in government interventions under the majoritarian and proportional representation systems. Using a model of electoral competition with targetable government intervention and heterogeneous localities, we uncover a novel relative electoral sensitivity effect in majoritarian systems. This effect, which depends on the geographic distribution of voters, can incentivize parties to allocate resources more equally under majoritarian systems than proportional representation systems. This contrasts with the conventional wisdom that government interventions are more unequal in majoritarian systems.

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  • Garance Genicot & Laurent Bouton & Micael Castanheira, 2018. "Electoral Systems and Inequalities in Government Interventions," NBER Working Papers 25205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25205
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    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General

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