Starving and deceiving: Are politicians with childhood famine exposure more honest?

Shuo Chen (), Xinyu Fan () and Xuanyi Wang ()
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Shuo Chen: Fudan University
Xinyu Fan: Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
Xuanyi Wang: Fudan University

Public Choice, 2025, vol. 204, issue 3, No 2, 287-306

Abstract: Abstract Dishonest politicians can jeopardize economic development. How do disasters change politicians’ incentives to lie? We employ a difference-in-differences approach to show that public officials who were exposed to China’s 1959–1961 famine as children (aged 0–6 years) are less likely to manipulate local GDP calculations; the reduction is more significant for officials who were more severely impacted by the disaster. We further reveal that famine-exposed local politicians take stronger moral stances on honesty, and are thus more reluctant to lie. The paper highlights how fraudulent policymaking in the past alters society’s long-term welfare through changing future government officials’ behaviors.

Keywords: Famine; Politicians; Lies; GDP manipulation; Honesty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 H83 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-024-01249-y

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