Why a clean politician supports dirty politics: A game-theoretical explanation for the persistence of political corruption

Haldun Evrenk ()

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2011, vol. 80, issue 3, 498-510

Abstract: Using a theoretical model of repeated political competition among two career politicians, I study the incentives of both the corrupt and clean politicians not to adopt a fully effective reform targeting political corruption. In the setup I study, each politician can credibly adopt the reform as part of his policy platform in the elections. Yet, when the level of political corruption is high, neither politician does so in a Nash Equilibrium. Intuitively, political corruption changes the zero-sum nature of political competition: the reform eliminates the illegal rents of the corrupt candidate and the competitive advantage of the clean candidate.

Keywords: Political corruption; Reform; Political agency; Imperfect competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:80:y:2011:i:3:p:498-510

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.05.004

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