Social Capital and Political Accountability

We investigate a channel through which social capital may improve economic well-being and the functioning of institutions: political accountability. The main idea is that voters who share values and beliefs that foster cooperation are more likely to vote based on criteria of social welfare rather th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American economic journal. Economic policy 2013-05, Vol.5 (2), p.222-250
Main Authors: Nannicini, Tommaso, Stella, Andrea, Tabellini, Guido, Troiano, Ugo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absenteeism
Accountability
Analysis
Blood & organ donations
Civics
Cooperation
Economic policy
Economic theory
Economics
Election results
Equilibrium
Incumbency
Incumbents
Investigations
Members of Parliament
Parliaments
Political corruption
Political elections
Politicians
Politics
Reelection
Social capital
Social interaction
State elections
Studies
Voters
Voting
Welfare
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigate a channel through which social capital may improve economic well-being and the functioning of institutions: political accountability. The main idea is that voters who share values and beliefs that foster cooperation are more likely to vote based on criteria of social welfare rather than narrow personal interest. We frame this intuition into a simple model of political agency and take it to the data using information on the criminal prosecutions and absenteeism rates of Italian members of Parliament. Empirical evidence shows that the electoral punishment of these misbehaviors is considerably larger in districts with higher social capital.
ISSN:1945-7731
1945-774X
DOI:10.1257/pol.5.2.222