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Politics, Information and the Urban Bias

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  • Sumon Majumdar
  • Anandi Mani
  • Sharun W. Mukand

Abstract

Governments in many developing countries skew public resources towards urban sectors, despite a majority of citizens residing in rural areas. This paper develops a novel political argument for this urban bias phenomenon in a framework where all voters, rural and urban, have equal voice, but di?er in their access to information. We argue that this di?erence is su?cient to give governments an incentive to ine?ciently overallocate resources towards urban areas. The bias is shown to worsen during adverse economic times, leading to increased migration. We also examine how voter informativeness a?ects e?ciency of the electoral process in weeding out incompetent governments.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumon Majumdar & Anandi Mani & Sharun W. Mukand, 2004. "Politics, Information and the Urban Bias," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0409, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    • Handle: RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0409
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban Bias; Information; Heterogeneous Electorate; Migration.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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