First among equals: The first place effect and political promotion in multi-member plurality elections

Dean Dulay and Laurence Anthony Go ()

Journal of Public Economics, 2021, vol. 200, issue C

Abstract: We study the impact of rank-based decision-making in a multi-member plurality electoral system by examining the decisions of Philippine legislative councilors to run for and win higher office. By focusing on multi-member plurality elections, we identify the effect of rank amongst politicians that hold the same office and received a similar number of votes. To identify the causal effect of rank, we conduct a close-elections RD at the village, municipality, and province levels. Our main result is the first place effect: incumbent first placers are 5–9% (1–4%) more likely to run (win) in future elections than incumbent second placers. The first place effect is unique among rank effects: subsequent rank comparisons yield substantially weaker or insignificant results. Further evidence suggests that a variety of potential mechanisms—party alignment, strategic voting, differential levels of media exposure or the better performance of first placers—do not seem to explain our results. These results improve our understanding of the variety of ways rank effects interact with electoral systems.

Keywords: Rank effect; Multi-member plurality; Political promotion; Regression discontinuity design; The Philippines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:200:y:2021:i:c:s0047272721000918

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104455

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