Choosing a Public-Spirited Leader. An experimental investigation of political selection
Research output: Working paper › Research
In this experiment, voters select a leader who can either act in the public interest, i.e. make efficient and equitable policy choices, or act in a corrupt way, i.e. use public funds for private gain. Voters can observe candidates’ pro-social behavior and their score in a cognitive ability test prior to the election, and this fact is known to candidates. Therefore, self-interested candidates have incentives to act in a pro-social manner, i.e. to pretend to be public-spirited leaders. We find that both truly pro-social and egoistic leaders co-exist, but that political selection is ineffective in choosing public-spirited leaders. The main reason is that egoistic candidates strategically pretend to be pro-social to increase their chances of winning the election.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 32 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Series | University of Copenhagen. Institute of Economics. Discussion Papers (Online) |
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Number | 17-04 |
ISSN | 1601-2461 |
- Faculty of Social Sciences - political selection, pro-social behavior, social dilemma, corruption, voting
Research areas
Links
- https://www.economics.ku.dk/research/publications/wp/dp_2017/1704.pdf
Submitted manuscript
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2940232
Submitted manuscript
ID: 178282245