DP6381 Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption
Author(s): | Abhijit Banerjee, Rohini Pande |
Publication Date: | July 2007 |
Keyword(s): | Corruption, Ethnic Voting, India |
JEL(s): | O12, P16 |
Programme Areas: | Public Economics, Development Economics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=6381 |
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.