Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP6381
Authors: Abhijit Banerjee; Rohini Pande
Abstract: This paper examines how increased voter ethnicization, defined as a greater preference for the party representing one's ethnic group, affects politician quality. If politics is characterized by incomplete policy commitment, then ethnicization reduces average winner quality for the pro-majority party with the opposite true for the minority party. The effect increases with greater numerical dominance of the majority (and so social homogeneity). Empirical evidence from a survey on politician corruption that we conducted in North India is remarkably consistent with our theoretical predictions.
Keywords: corruption; ethnic voting; India
JEL Codes: O12; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increased voter ethnicization (K16) | decline in average quality of politicians affiliated with the pro-majority party (D72) |
| increased voter ethnicization (K16) | improvement in average quality of minority party politicians (D72) |
| pro-majority party dominance (D72) | decline in average quality of politicians affiliated with the pro-majority party (D72) |
| pro-majority party dominance (D72) | improvement in average quality of minority party politicians (D72) |
| increased ethnicization (J15) | lower quality threshold for majority party candidates (D79) |
| increased ethnicization (J15) | higher quality threshold for minority party candidates (D79) |