We investigate the relationship between the quality of politicians, defined in terms of their competence (skills), and rewards from public office in a game between parties and citizens in which parties play a crucial role in the selection of politicians. Parties shape the selection of politicians by manipulating information about the quality of their candidates. An increase in the rewards from public offices leads to two opposing effects on the average quality of politicians. The first is a selection effect, whereby more skilled citizens enter politics, leading to an increase in average quality. The second is a manipulation effect, as parties have the incentive to further manipulate information so to increase the probability of election for their unskilled candidates, from whom they can extract higher rents in the form of service duties. We find that the second effect dominates when i. parties’ costs of manipulating information are sufficiently low; ii. even in the absence of manipulation, the quality of information available to citizens about candidates is sufficiently poor; and iii. the net gains from becoming a politician for unskilled citizens are sufficiently larger than those for skilled citizens. These findings provide a rationale for the ambiguous sign of the empirical relationship between the quality and pay of politicians.

Reward from public office, and the selection of politicians by parties

CERINA, FABIO;
2017-01-01

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between the quality of politicians, defined in terms of their competence (skills), and rewards from public office in a game between parties and citizens in which parties play a crucial role in the selection of politicians. Parties shape the selection of politicians by manipulating information about the quality of their candidates. An increase in the rewards from public offices leads to two opposing effects on the average quality of politicians. The first is a selection effect, whereby more skilled citizens enter politics, leading to an increase in average quality. The second is a manipulation effect, as parties have the incentive to further manipulate information so to increase the probability of election for their unskilled candidates, from whom they can extract higher rents in the form of service duties. We find that the second effect dominates when i. parties’ costs of manipulating information are sufficiently low; ii. even in the absence of manipulation, the quality of information available to citizens about candidates is sufficiently poor; and iii. the net gains from becoming a politician for unskilled citizens are sufficiently larger than those for skilled citizens. These findings provide a rationale for the ambiguous sign of the empirical relationship between the quality and pay of politicians.
2017
Selection; Public office rewards; Political parties; Quality of politicians; Information manipulation
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Politicians_EJPE_2017.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Tipologia: versione editoriale
Dimensione 1 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
Rewards_WP_2016.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: versione post-print
Dimensione 702.37 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
702.37 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11584/198217
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 6
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 4
social impact