Publication: Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption
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2007-07
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Center for International Development at Harvard University
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Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Rohini Pande. “Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption.” CID Working Paper Series 2007.147, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, July 2007.
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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.
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