Caselli, Francesco 
ORCID: 0009-0001-5191-7156 and Morelli, Massimo
(2001)
Bad politicians.
.
National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA., USA.
Abstract
We present a simple theory of the quality (competence and honesty) of elected officials. Our theory offers four main insights. Low-quality citizens have a “comparative advantage” in pursuing elective office, because their market wages are lower than those of high-quality citizens (competence), and/or because they reap higher returns from holding office (honesty). Hence, voters may find themselves supply constrained of high-quality candidates. Second, bad politicians generate negative externalities for good ones, making their rewards from office increasing in the average quality of office holders. This leads to multiple equilibria in quality. Third, incumbent policymakers can influence the rewards of future policymakers, leading to path dependence in quality: bad governments saw the seeds for more bad governments. Fourth, quality-constrained voters look for the optimal mix of honesty and ability, and this may lead to a negative correlation between these two qualities across political entities.
| Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.nber.org |
| Additional Information: | © 2001 Francesco Caselli and Massimo Morelli |
| Divisions: | Centre for Economic Performance Economics |
| Subjects: | K Law > K Law (General) H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance |
| JEL classification: | H - Public Economics > H0 - General K - Law and Economics > K0 - General |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jun 2008 15:35 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Oct 2024 03:16 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/5301 |
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