Citation:
Pande, Rohini, and Abhijit Banerjee. 2007. “Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption”. Copy at http://www.tinyurl.com/y3ut8dkz
Date Published:
Jul 1, 2007Abstract:
This paper examines how increased voter ethnicization, defined as a greater preference for the party representing one's ethnic group, affects politician quality. If politics is characterized by incomplete policy commitment, then ethnicization reduces average winner quality for the pro-majority party with the opposite true for the minority party. The effect increases with greater numerical dominance of the majority (and so social homogeneity). Empirical evidence from a survey on politician corruption that we conducted in North India is remarkably consistent with our theoretical predictions.Notes:
Also Faculty Research Working Papers Series, John F. Kennedy School of Government.Download PDF