The Library
Decentralization and electoral accountability: incentives, separation and voter welfare
Tools
Tools
Tools
Hindriks, Jean and Lockwood, Ben (2005) Decentralization and electoral accountability: incentives, separation and voter welfare. Discussion Paper. London: Centre for Economic Policy Research (Great Britain). Discussion paper (Centre for Economic Policy Research (Great Britain)) (No.512).
![[img]](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
|
PDF
WRAP_Lockwood_CEPR-DP5125[1].pdf - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (387Kb) |
Official URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=5...
Abstract
This paper studies the relationship between fiscal decentralization and electoral accountability, by analysing how decentralization impacts upon incentive and selection effects, and thus on voter welfare. The model abstracts from features such as public good spillovers or economies of scale, so that absent elections, voters are indifferent about the fiscal regime. The effect of fiscal centralization on voter welfare works through two channels: (i) via its effect on the probability of pooling by the bad incumbent; (ii) conditional on the probability of pooling, the extent to which, with centralization, the incumbent can divert rents in some regions without this being detected by voters in other regions (selective rent diversion). Both these effects depend on the information structure; whether voters only observe fiscal policy in their own region, in all regions, or an intermediate case with a uniform tax across all regions. More voter information does not necessarily raise voter welfare, and under some conditions, voter would choose uniform over differentiated taxes ex ante to constrain selective rent diversion.
| Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Discussion Paper) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) |
||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Decentralization in government, Local finance, Elections, Voting reasearch | ||||
| Series Name: | Discussion paper (Centre for Economic Policy Research (Great Britain)) | ||||
| Publisher: | Centre for Economic Policy Research (Great Britain) | ||||
| Place of Publication: | London | ||||
| Official Date: | July 2005 | ||||
| Dates: |
|
||||
| Number: | No.512 | ||||
| Number of Pages: | 44 | ||||
| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
