Fact Finding Trips to Italy: An experimental investigation of voter incentives

Cortney Rodet

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper addresses the interaction of voter information and seniority on electoral accountability. We test whether information leads voters to be less tolerant of moral hazard in a legislative system favoring seniority. A simple game theoretic model is used to predict outcomes in a pork-barrel experiment where subjects act as legislators and voters. Senior legislators have an advantage in providing transfers which presents the opportunity to shirk where legislators can enrich themselves at the expense of voters. Voter information about incumbent behavior is varied across experimental treatments. We find that accountability increases when voters can compare their own legislator’s behavior to the behavior of others. Despite the fact that voters succumb to the incentives of seniority, information is effective in deterring legislator shirking.

Keywords: voting; experiments; information; principal-agent problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 D72 D89 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-cta, nep-exp and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:33193

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