Inherent Quality or Nepotism?: Performance Analysis of Political Dynasties in a Democracy

Abstract

While persistence of political dynasties in a democracy has received attention, the performance of dynasts remains unstudied. using a regression discontinuity (RD) framework, we compare dynastic representatives, who defeat non-dynastic candidates by a close margin with non-dynastic representatives, who defeat dynasts by a similar margin. We devise a set of performance measures, which include aggregate outcomes as well as measures based on individual initiative. We find that dynasts under-perform in terms of economic growth, crime, utilization of development funds and parliamentary performance and do not outperform in terms of any other criteria. Our findings show that the persistence of dynasties imposes significant economic and political costs.

Keywords: Democracy, Legislature, Elections, Performance of Government

JEL Classification: D72, D73, H11