Do Elections Always Motivate Incumbents? Experimentation vs. Career Concerns

32 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2006

See all articles by Eric Le Borgne

Eric Le Borgne

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Ben Lockwood

University of Warwick - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: March 2003

Abstract

This paper studies a principal-agent model of the relationship between an incumbent officeholder and the electorate, where the officeholder is initially uninformed about her ability. If officeholder effort and ability interact in the production function that determines performance in office, then an officeholder has an incentive to experiment - that is, raise effort so that performance becomes a more accurate signal of her ability. Elections reduce the experimentation effect, and the reduction in this effect may more than offset the positive career-concerns effect of elections on effort. Moreover, when this occurs, appointment of officeholders may Pareto-dominate elections.

Keywords: Career Concern, Elections, Citizen Candidate, Experimentation, Tournaments, Political Business Cycles

JEL Classification: D72, D78, H41, J44, J45

Suggested Citation

Le Borgne, Eric and Lockwood, Ben, Do Elections Always Motivate Incumbents? Experimentation vs. Career Concerns (March 2003). IMF Working Paper No. 03/57, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=879132

Eric Le Borgne (Contact Author)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

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Ben Lockwood

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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