Banerjee, AbhijitPande, Rohini2020-02-172007-07Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Rohini Pande. “Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption.” CID Working Paper Series 2007.147, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, July 2007.http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42482350This 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.en-USResearch Paper or Report2020-02-17