Term limits and political accountability

Sturm, Daniel ORCID: 0000-0001-6408-8089 and Smart, Michael (2003) Term limits and political accountability. In: EEA-ESEM 2003, 2003-08-20 - 2003-08-24, Stockholm, Sweden, SWE. (Submitted)

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Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of term limits in a political agency model. We find that term limits reduce the value of holding office. This reduction in the re-election incentive can induce politicians to implement policies that are closer to their own private preferences. Such "truthful" behaviour by incumbents will in turn result in a better screening of incumbents whose preferences do not correspond to voters' preferences. We show that these effects can make a two-term term limit, which is the empirically most frequent restriction on tenure, ex ante welfare improving from the perspective of voters

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Official URL:	https://www.eeassoc.org/past-congresses
Additional Information:	© 2003 The Authors
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance Economics
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2008 11:08
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 13:59
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/20892

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