Working Paper: NBER ID: w27301
Authors: Prateik Dalmia; Allan Drazen; Erkut Y. Ozbay
Abstract: We study how reelection concerns affect reciprocity by elected leaders to the voters who elected them. If showing kindness to past voters reduces the chances of reelection, will an elected leader reduce or eliminate such intrinsic reciprocity? We present a signalling model of candidate behavior, where we show that candidates may limit intrinsic reciprocity to past voters to signal congruence with voters important for reelection, and selfish candidates may mimic reciprocal behavior for instrumental purposes. We then present an experiment that tests these ideas in the laboratory and finds support for the model. Both candidates and voters behave as the signalling model predicts. Our key finding is that the desire to be reelected may limit intrinsic reciprocity of an elected leader to the voters who put her in office, but does not eliminate it entirely.
Keywords: reciprocity; reelection; political behavior; voter behavior
JEL Codes: C91; D72; D78
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| desire to be reelected (D72) | limit intrinsic reciprocity (Z13) |
| cost of voting (K16) | limit intrinsic reciprocity (Z13) |
| cost of voting (K16) | candidates limit reciprocity to past voters (D72) |
| selfish candidates (D79) | mimic reciprocal behavior (C92) |
| reelection motives (D72) | limitation of reciprocal actions (C71) |