Land lotteries, long-term wealth, and political selection

Jason Poulos ()
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Jason Poulos: University of California

Public Choice, 2019, vol. 178, issue 1, No 11, 217-230

Abstract: Abstract Does personal wealth cause individuals to select into public office? This study exploits the 1805 and 1807 Georgia land lotteries to investigate the hypothesis that wealth increases political power. Most eligible males participated in the lotteries and more than one-in-ten participants won a land prize worth over half of median property wealth. I find no evidence that lottery wealth increases the likelihood of officeholding or running for office, and argue that those null findings are informative because the estimates are not practically different from zero. The absence of a treatment effect implies that commonly observed cross-sectional correlations between personal wealth and officeholding are likely explained by selection effects.

Keywords: Candidacy; Natural experiment; Officeholding; Wealth shock (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 N31 N41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:178:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-018-00625-9

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-018-00625-9

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