Politicians, institutional incentives and citizen welfare: evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in India
Banerjee, Prasenjit, Iversen, Vegard, Mitra, Sandip and Sen, Kunal (2024) Politicians, institutional incentives and citizen welfare: evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in India. Oxford Economic Papers. ISSN 0030-7653 (Print), 1464-3812 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpae028)
|
PDF (Open Access Article)
47563 IVERSEN_Politicians_Institutional_Incentives_And_Citizen_Welfare_(OA)_2024.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
We examine how politicians and non-politicians in rural India respond to behavioural incentives. Using a modified dictator game, we vary treatments (and incentives) across the nature of interactions, the visibility of actions, and an upfront promise. Under anonymity, politicians and non-politicians behave selfishly: both become significantly more generous when interactions are personalized. However, while non-politicians respond to greater visibility more strongly than politicians, an upfront promise induces more pronounced politician responses. Whereas promise-breaking appears to be more costly for politicians, visibility, via social image concerns, appears to matter more for non-politicians. This mix of similarity and heterogeneity in response suggests that evidence about the behaviour of real-world politicians is more important for effective policy design than acknowledged so far.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Uncontrolled Keywords: | asymmetric information, politician behaviour, social preferences, promises, dictator game, India |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: | Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Society, Environment and Development (CSED) Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Society, Environment and Development (CSED) > Gender & Social Difference |
Last Modified: | 20 Aug 2024 09:39 |
URI: | http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/47563 |
Actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year