Discussion paper

DP5175 Re-election Threshold Contracts in Politics

When politicians are provided with insufficient incentives by the democratic election mechanism, social welfare can be improved by threshold contracts. A threshold contract stipulates the performance level that a politician must reach in order to obtain the right to stand for re-election. 'Read my lips' turns into 'read my contract'. Politicians can offer the threshold contracts during their campaign. These threshold contracts do not violate the liberal principle of free and anonymous elections in democracies.

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Citation

Gersbach, H and V Liessem (2005), ‘DP5175 Re-election Threshold Contracts in Politics‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5175. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp5175

Climate adaptation questionnaire
VoxEU Column

The political economy of adapting to climate change

    ![](../../../../../../../../../../var/folders/34/zq18d8kx7kbgby0j06p_j6t40000gn/T/TemporaryItems/NSIRD_screencaptureui_EM2XPo/Screenshot 2022-01-04 at 17.01.16.png)
  • Climate Change
    • ![](../../../../../../../../../../var/folders/34/zq18d8kx7kbgby0j06p_j6t40000gn/T/TemporaryItems/NSIRD_screencaptureui_EM2XPo/Screenshot 2022-01-04 at 17.01.16.png)
  • Politics and economics