Do Politicians’ Preferences Matter for Voters’ Voting Decisions?

Matz Dahlberg (), Eva Mörk () and Pilar Sorribas Navarro ()
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Pilar Sorribas Navarro: Universitat de Barcelona and Institut d’Economia de Barcelona
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Pilar Sorribas-Navarro ()

No 2011:5, Working Paper Series, Center for Fiscal Studies from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using unique survey data that allows us to observe both voters’ and politicians’ preferences for local public spending as well as voting decisions, this paper tests if voters typically support parties in which the politicians’ preferences are closest to their own. Doing so would be rational for the voters to do if politicians’ preferences matter for policy outcomes, as is the case in e.g. the citizen-candidate model. It is found that this is indeed the case. This finding is in line with theoretical models such as the citizen-candidate model arguing that politicians cannot credibly commit to election platforms that differ from their true policy preferences.

Keywords: Elections; voting; preferences for public services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H71 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2011-05-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Do Politicians’ Preferences Matter for Voters’ Voting Decisions? (2011)
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