Loading…
Accountability and Information in Elections
Elections are thought to improve voter welfare through two channels: effective accountability (i.e., providing incentives for politicians to take costly effort) and electoral selection (i.e., retaining politicians with characteristics voters value). We show that there may be a trade-off between thes...
Saved in:
Published in: | American economic journal. Microeconomics 2017-05, Vol.9 (2), p.95-138 |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
cited_by | cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3 |
---|---|
cites | cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3 |
container_end_page | 138 |
container_issue | 2 |
container_start_page | 95 |
container_title | American economic journal. Microeconomics |
container_volume | 9 |
creator | Ashworth, Scott de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno Friedenberg, Amanda |
description | Elections are thought to improve voter welfare through two channels: effective accountability (i.e., providing incentives for politicians to take costly effort) and electoral selection (i.e., retaining politicians with characteristics voters value). We show that there may be a trade-off between these two channels. Higher levels of effective accountability may hinder the voters' ability to learn about the politicians. In turn, this may hinder electoral selection and be detrimental to voter welfare. This is because increasing effective accountability directly impacts how informative governance outcomes are about an incumbent's type. We show that, if politicians' effort and type are local substitutes (resp. complements) in the production of governance outcomes, an increase in effective accountability corresponds to a decrease (resp. increase) in Blackwell (1951) informativeness. We also show that effective accountability can vary even absent institutional variation. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for there to be multiple equilibria that differ in terms of both effective accountability and electoral selection. Overall, our findings have implications for voter behavior, the efficacy of institutional reforms, and voter welfare. |
doi_str_mv | 10.1257/mic.20150349 |
format | article |
fullrecord | <record><control><sourceid>jstor_proqu</sourceid><recordid>TN_cdi_proquest_journals_1891059195</recordid><sourceformat>XML</sourceformat><sourcesystem>PC</sourcesystem><jstor_id>26156899</jstor_id><sourcerecordid>26156899</sourcerecordid><originalsourceid>FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3</originalsourceid><addsrcrecordid>eNo9kE1Lw0AURQdRsFZ3boWAS02dN1-ZWZZStVBwo-th8pKBhDRTZ9JF_70pqV3duzi8dzmEPAJdAJPF267BBaMgKRfmiszACJkXSsvrS1fmltyl1FKquOJ6Rl6WiOHQD65sumY4Zq6vsk3vQ9y5oQl91vTZuqvx1NM9ufGuS_XDOefk5339vfrMt18fm9Vym6OQfMgZ1drrinGJZV0ZpxR4QFlqrwSwSkjmi9oUcpyJTnhNkQnPC1YAIla65HPyPN3dx_B7qNNg23CI_fjSgjZApQEjR-p1ojCGlGLt7T42OxePFqg96bCjDvuvY8SfJrxNQ4gXlimQShvD_wBWEFsr</addsrcrecordid><sourcetype>Aggregation Database</sourcetype><iscdi>true</iscdi><recordtype>article</recordtype><pqid>1891059195</pqid></control><display><type>article</type><title>Accountability and Information in Elections</title><source>ABI/INFORM Global (ProQuest)</source><source>JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection【Remote access available】</source><source>American Economic Association</source><source>EconLit with Full Text【Remote access available】</source><creator>Ashworth, Scott ; de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno ; Friedenberg, Amanda</creator><creatorcontrib>Ashworth, Scott ; de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno ; Friedenberg, Amanda</creatorcontrib><description>Elections are thought to improve voter welfare through two channels: effective accountability (i.e., providing incentives for politicians to take costly effort) and electoral selection (i.e., retaining politicians with characteristics voters value). We show that there may be a trade-off between these two channels. Higher levels of effective accountability may hinder the voters' ability to learn about the politicians. In turn, this may hinder electoral selection and be detrimental to voter welfare. This is because increasing effective accountability directly impacts how informative governance outcomes are about an incumbent's type. We show that, if politicians' effort and type are local substitutes (resp. complements) in the production of governance outcomes, an increase in effective accountability corresponds to a decrease (resp. increase) in Blackwell (1951) informativeness. We also show that effective accountability can vary even absent institutional variation. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for there to be multiple equilibria that differ in terms of both effective accountability and electoral selection. Overall, our findings have implications for voter behavior, the efficacy of institutional reforms, and voter welfare.</description><identifier>ISSN: 1945-7669</identifier><identifier>EISSN: 1945-7685</identifier><identifier>DOI: 10.1257/mic.20150349</identifier><language>eng</language><publisher>Pittsburgh: American Economic Association</publisher><subject>Accountability ; Cost functions ; Economic models ; Governance ; Incumbents ; Microeconomics ; Political elections ; Politicians ; Production functions ; Public goods ; Voter behavior ; Voters ; Voting ; Voting behavior</subject><ispartof>American economic journal. Microeconomics, 2017-05, Vol.9 (2), p.95-138</ispartof><rights>Copyright © 2017 American Economic Association</rights><rights>Copyright American Economic Association May 2017</rights><lds50>peer_reviewed</lds50><oa>free_for_read</oa><woscitedreferencessubscribed>false</woscitedreferencessubscribed><citedby>FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3</citedby><cites>FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3</cites></display><links><openurl>$$Topenurl_article</openurl><openurlfulltext>$$Topenurlfull_article</openurlfulltext><thumbnail>$$Tsyndetics_thumb_exl</thumbnail><linktopdf>$$Uhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26156899$$EPDF$$P50$$Gjstor$$H</linktopdf><linktohtml>$$Uhttps://www.proquest.com/docview/1891059195?pq-origsite=primo$$EHTML$$P50$$Gproquest$$H</linktohtml><link.rule.ids>315,786,790,3767,11715,27957,27958,36095,44398,58593,58826</link.rule.ids></links><search><creatorcontrib>Ashworth, Scott</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Friedenberg, Amanda</creatorcontrib><title>Accountability and Information in Elections</title><title>American economic journal. Microeconomics</title><description>Elections are thought to improve voter welfare through two channels: effective accountability (i.e., providing incentives for politicians to take costly effort) and electoral selection (i.e., retaining politicians with characteristics voters value). We show that there may be a trade-off between these two channels. Higher levels of effective accountability may hinder the voters' ability to learn about the politicians. In turn, this may hinder electoral selection and be detrimental to voter welfare. This is because increasing effective accountability directly impacts how informative governance outcomes are about an incumbent's type. We show that, if politicians' effort and type are local substitutes (resp. complements) in the production of governance outcomes, an increase in effective accountability corresponds to a decrease (resp. increase) in Blackwell (1951) informativeness. We also show that effective accountability can vary even absent institutional variation. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for there to be multiple equilibria that differ in terms of both effective accountability and electoral selection. Overall, our findings have implications for voter behavior, the efficacy of institutional reforms, and voter welfare.</description><subject>Accountability</subject><subject>Cost functions</subject><subject>Economic models</subject><subject>Governance</subject><subject>Incumbents</subject><subject>Microeconomics</subject><subject>Political elections</subject><subject>Politicians</subject><subject>Production functions</subject><subject>Public goods</subject><subject>Voter behavior</subject><subject>Voters</subject><subject>Voting</subject><subject>Voting behavior</subject><issn>1945-7669</issn><issn>1945-7685</issn><fulltext>true</fulltext><rsrctype>article</rsrctype><creationdate>2017</creationdate><recordtype>article</recordtype><sourceid>M0C</sourceid><recordid>eNo9kE1Lw0AURQdRsFZ3boWAS02dN1-ZWZZStVBwo-th8pKBhDRTZ9JF_70pqV3duzi8dzmEPAJdAJPF267BBaMgKRfmiszACJkXSsvrS1fmltyl1FKquOJ6Rl6WiOHQD65sumY4Zq6vsk3vQ9y5oQl91vTZuqvx1NM9ufGuS_XDOefk5339vfrMt18fm9Vym6OQfMgZ1drrinGJZV0ZpxR4QFlqrwSwSkjmi9oUcpyJTnhNkQnPC1YAIla65HPyPN3dx_B7qNNg23CI_fjSgjZApQEjR-p1ojCGlGLt7T42OxePFqg96bCjDvuvY8SfJrxNQ4gXlimQShvD_wBWEFsr</recordid><startdate>20170501</startdate><enddate>20170501</enddate><creator>Ashworth, Scott</creator><creator>de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno</creator><creator>Friedenberg, Amanda</creator><general>American Economic Association</general><scope>AAYXX</scope><scope>CITATION</scope><scope>3V.</scope><scope>7WY</scope><scope>7WZ</scope><scope>7XB</scope><scope>87Z</scope><scope>8FK</scope><scope>8FL</scope><scope>ABUWG</scope><scope>AFKRA</scope><scope>BENPR</scope><scope>BEZIV</scope><scope>CCPQU</scope><scope>DWQXO</scope><scope>FRNLG</scope><scope>F~G</scope><scope>K60</scope><scope>K6~</scope><scope>L.-</scope><scope>M0C</scope><scope>PQBIZ</scope><scope>PQBZA</scope><scope>PQEST</scope><scope>PQQKQ</scope><scope>PQUKI</scope><scope>PYYUZ</scope><scope>Q9U</scope></search><sort><creationdate>20170501</creationdate><title>Accountability and Information in Elections</title><author>Ashworth, Scott ; de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno ; Friedenberg, Amanda</author></sort><facets><frbrtype>5</frbrtype><frbrgroupid>cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3</frbrgroupid><rsrctype>articles</rsrctype><prefilter>articles</prefilter><language>eng</language><creationdate>2017</creationdate><topic>Accountability</topic><topic>Cost functions</topic><topic>Economic models</topic><topic>Governance</topic><topic>Incumbents</topic><topic>Microeconomics</topic><topic>Political elections</topic><topic>Politicians</topic><topic>Production functions</topic><topic>Public goods</topic><topic>Voter behavior</topic><topic>Voters</topic><topic>Voting</topic><topic>Voting behavior</topic><toplevel>peer_reviewed</toplevel><toplevel>online_resources</toplevel><creatorcontrib>Ashworth, Scott</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Friedenberg, Amanda</creatorcontrib><collection>CrossRef</collection><collection>ProQuest Central (Corporate)</collection><collection>ABI商业信息数据库</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Global (PDF only)</collection><collection>ProQuest Central (purchase pre-March 2016)</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Central (Alumni) (purchase pre-March 2016)</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Collection (Alumni Edition)</collection><collection>ProQuest Central (Alumni)</collection><collection>ProQuest Central</collection><collection>AUTh Library subscriptions: ProQuest Central</collection><collection>Business Premium Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest One Community College</collection><collection>ProQuest Central</collection><collection>Business Premium Collection (Alumni)</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Global (Corporate)</collection><collection>ProQuest Business Collection (Alumni Edition)</collection><collection>ProQuest Business Collection</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Professional Advanced</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Global (ProQuest)</collection><collection>One Business</collection><collection>ProQuest One Business (Alumni)</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic Eastern Edition (DO NOT USE)</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic UKI Edition</collection><collection>ABI/INFORM Collection China</collection><collection>ProQuest Central Basic</collection><jtitle>American economic journal. Microeconomics</jtitle></facets><delivery><delcategory>Remote Search Resource</delcategory><fulltext>fulltext</fulltext></delivery><addata><au>Ashworth, Scott</au><au>de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno</au><au>Friedenberg, Amanda</au><format>journal</format><genre>article</genre><ristype>JOUR</ristype><atitle>Accountability and Information in Elections</atitle><jtitle>American economic journal. Microeconomics</jtitle><date>2017-05-01</date><risdate>2017</risdate><volume>9</volume><issue>2</issue><spage>95</spage><epage>138</epage><pages>95-138</pages><issn>1945-7669</issn><eissn>1945-7685</eissn><abstract>Elections are thought to improve voter welfare through two channels: effective accountability (i.e., providing incentives for politicians to take costly effort) and electoral selection (i.e., retaining politicians with characteristics voters value). We show that there may be a trade-off between these two channels. Higher levels of effective accountability may hinder the voters' ability to learn about the politicians. In turn, this may hinder electoral selection and be detrimental to voter welfare. This is because increasing effective accountability directly impacts how informative governance outcomes are about an incumbent's type. We show that, if politicians' effort and type are local substitutes (resp. complements) in the production of governance outcomes, an increase in effective accountability corresponds to a decrease (resp. increase) in Blackwell (1951) informativeness. We also show that effective accountability can vary even absent institutional variation. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for there to be multiple equilibria that differ in terms of both effective accountability and electoral selection. Overall, our findings have implications for voter behavior, the efficacy of institutional reforms, and voter welfare.</abstract><cop>Pittsburgh</cop><pub>American Economic Association</pub><doi>10.1257/mic.20150349</doi><tpages>44</tpages><oa>free_for_read</oa></addata></record> |
fulltext | fulltext |
identifier | ISSN: 1945-7669 |
ispartof | American economic journal. Microeconomics, 2017-05, Vol.9 (2), p.95-138 |
issn | 1945-7669 1945-7685 |
language | eng |
recordid | cdi_proquest_journals_1891059195 |
source | ABI/INFORM Global (ProQuest); JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection【Remote access available】; American Economic Association; EconLit with Full Text【Remote access available】 |
subjects | Accountability Cost functions Economic models Governance Incumbents Microeconomics Political elections Politicians Production functions Public goods Voter behavior Voters Voting Voting behavior |
title | Accountability and Information in Elections |
url | http://sfxeu10.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/loughborough?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2024-09-23T05%3A20%3A08IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-jstor_proqu&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Accountability%20and%20Information%20in%20Elections&rft.jtitle=American%20economic%20journal.%20Microeconomics&rft.au=Ashworth,%20Scott&rft.date=2017-05-01&rft.volume=9&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=95&rft.epage=138&rft.pages=95-138&rft.issn=1945-7669&rft.eissn=1945-7685&rft_id=info:doi/10.1257/mic.20150349&rft_dat=%3Cjstor_proqu%3E26156899%3C/jstor_proqu%3E%3Cgrp_id%3Ecdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c453t-2088f8d235cbed9a661f1c5b8f6412d452f7e975503ca4f80c24f37271cccd8b3%3C/grp_id%3E%3Coa%3E%3C/oa%3E%3Curl%3E%3C/url%3E&rft_id=info:oai/&rft_pqid=1891059195&rft_id=info:pmid/&rft_jstor_id=26156899&rfr_iscdi=true |