Publications
- Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption
- Download: PDF 331.79 KB
- by Pande, Rohini; Banerjee, Abhijit
- This paper examines how increased voter ethnicization, defined as a greater preference for the
party representing one's ethnic group, affects politician quality. If politics is characterized by
incomplete policy commitment, then ethnicization reduces average winner quality for the pro-majority party with the opposite true for the minority party. The effect increases with greater
numerical dominance of the majority (and so social homogeneity). Empirical evidence from
a survey on politician corruption that we conducted in North India is remarkably consistent
with our theoretical predictions.
- Publication Type: WCFIA Working Paper
- Published Date: July 2007
- Field of Interest: Comparative Politics
- Pande, Rohini, and Abhijit Banerjee. "Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption." Working Paper 2008-0093, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, July 2007.
- Also Faculty Research Working Papers Series, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
