Politics, information and the urban bias

Majumdar, Sumon; Mani, Anandi; Mukand, Sharun W.

doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2003.08.003

Cited by 59 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Our model, which is derived from Majumdar, Mani, and Mukand (2005) and similar to those presented in Persson and Tabellini (2000) and Alesina and Tabellini (2004), is a simple adaptation of the standard political agency models. This class of models, where voters have limited information about the incumbent's type or behavior, provides a natural environment to examine the value of information in promoting political accountability.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes^*

Ferraz¹,

Finan²

2008

Quarterly Journal of Economics

1,128

789

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This paper examines the extent to which access to information enhances political accountability. Based upon the results of Brazil's recent anti-corruption program that randomly audits municipal expenditures of federally-transferred funds, it estimates the effect of the disclosure of local government corruption practices upon the re-election success of incumbent mayors in municipal elections. Comparing municipalities which were randomly audited before the elections with those audited after, the analysis shows that the disclosure of audit results had a significant impact on the re-election rates of mayors found to be corrupt. For every additional corruption violation reported, the audit policy reduced the incumbent's likelihood of re-election by approximately 20 percent. This effect is more pronounced in municipalities where radio stations are present and higher levels of corruption are identified. These findings highlight the value of information and the role of the media in reducing informational asymmetries in the political process, thus enabling voters to not only hold corrupt politicians accountable but also to reward non-corrupt politicians. * We are grateful to

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes^*

Ferraz¹,

Finan²

2008

Quarterly Journal of Economics

1,128

789

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…51 I create a democratization dummy equal to one for years after the year of democratization listed in Table 1 for each cut-off value of each indicator. As both indicators suggest that some countries became nondemocratic after they were democratized in the 1990s, I also create a dummy variable which is equal to one for years after the collapse of democracy in the 1990s, in order to check if the effect of democratization on infant mortality persists even after democracy collapses.…”

Section: What Type Of Democracy Matters?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Has Democratization Reduced Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence From Micro Data

Kudamatsu

2012

Journal of the European Economic Association

276

138

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“…The disparity could also be due to the fact that urban households have an information advantage. Majumdar et al(2004) contends;…”

Section: Explaining Di¤erences In School Investment Between Urban Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural–urban differences in parental spending on children's primary education in Malawi

Mussa

2013

Development Southern Africa

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The paper investigates two issues regarding household expenditure on primary education of own children using the Second Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS2) data. Firstly, we look at factors which in ‡uence a household's decision to spend or not (the participation decision), and by how much (the expenditure decision). This is done for urban and rural households. We …nd that there are di¤erences in the factors which in ‡uence both decision levels for the two groups of households. Secondly, to get a deeper understanding of these rural-urban spending di¤erences, the study develops the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique for the independent Double Hurdle model. The proposed decomposition is done at the aggregate and disaggregated levels. The aggregated decomposition allows us to isolate the expenditure di¤erences into a part attributable to di¤erences in characteristics and a part which is due to di¤erences in coe¢ cients. The detailed (disaggregated) decomposition enables us to pinpoint the major factors behind the spending gap. At the aggregate decomposition level, our results show that at least 66% of the expenditure di¤erential is explained by di¤erences in characteristics between rural and urban households, implying that an equalization of household characteristics would lead to about 66% of the spending gap disappearing. At the disaggregated decomposition level, the rural-urban di¤erence in household income is found to be the largest contributor to the spending gap, followed by quality of access of primary schools. Besides, rural-urban di¤erences in mothers education and employment are found to contribute more to the spending di¤erential relative to the same for fathers.

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Politics, information and the urban bias

Cited by 59 publications

References 12 publications

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes^*

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes^*

Has Democratization Reduced Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence From Micro Data

Rural–urban differences in parental spending on children's primary education in Malawi

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Politics, information and the urban bias

Cited by 59 publications

References 12 publications

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes*

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes*

Has Democratization Reduced Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence From Micro Data

Rural–urban differences in parental spending on children's primary education in Malawi

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes^*

Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil's Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes^*