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Title: Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption

Author(s): Abhijit Banerjee and Rohini Pande

Publication Date: July 2007

Keyword(s): Corruption, Ethnic Voting and India

Programme Area(s): Development Economics and Public Economics

Abstract: 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.

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Bibliographic Reference

Banerjee, A and Pande, R. 2007. 'Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=6381