Anderberg, Dan and Perroni, Carlo. (2003) Time-consistent policy and politics: does voting matter when individuals are identical? BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Vol.3 (No.1). Article 3. ISSN 1935-1682

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Abstract

We consider the implications of a lack of policy commitment when policies are chosen through a political process and individuals are ex-ante identical. We show that politics, by allowing ex-post distributional tensions to shape policy, can make it possible to sustain non-trivial equilibria in which the commitment problem is alleviated or fully eliminated. How effective politics can be at countering collective commitment problems in homogeneous groups depends on the nature of the political process and on the extent to which private choices are public information.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	J Political Science > JC Political theory
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Voting research, Taxation, Game theory, Economic policy -- Political aspects, Political science -- Philosophy
Journal or Publication Title:	BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy
Publisher:	Berkeley Electronic Press
ISSN:	1935-1682
Date:	13 March 2003
Volume:	Vol.3
Number:	No.1
Page Range:	Article 3
Identification Number:	10.2202/1538-0653.1101
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/889

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