Using Name Standardisation to Track Candidate and MP Performance over Time in Papua New Guinea

17 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2019

See all articles by Thomas Wangi

Thomas Wangi

University of Papua New Guinea; National Research Institute; Australian National University (ANU), Students

Terence Wood

Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Public Policy

Date Written: October 18, 2019

Abstract

This paper makes use of data from the Papua New Guinea Election Results Database. It draws on an exercise in which we standardised the spelling of candidate names to allow for intertemporal analysis. Our central research questions included: whether the share of more experienced MPs in Papua New Guinea’s parliament has increased; whether MPs who have been in power longer are more or less likely to be re-elected than newer MPs; whether the typical first-time winner in the 2012 and 2017 elections had a long history of previous candidacies; and whether women candidates perform better over time if they stand in multiple elections. We found no trend of increasing MP experience. We found third term MPs were less likely to be re-elected than first and second term, but fourth-term MPs were more likely to be re-elected. We found that, typically, winners in 2012 and 2017 had not stood many times prior to victory. And we found that female candidates tend to perform worse on average the more times they stand, although there is considerable variation amongst different candidates.

Keywords: Papua New Guinea, Elections, PNG, Melanesia, Politics

Suggested Citation

Wangi, Thomas and Wood, Terence, Using Name Standardisation to Track Candidate and MP Performance over Time in Papua New Guinea (October 18, 2019). Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper No. 84, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3471604 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3471604

Thomas Wangi

University of Papua New Guinea ( email )

P.O. Box 320, University Post Office
National Capital District
Papua
Guinea

National Research Institute ( email )

Warszawa
Poland

Australian National University (ANU), Students ( email )

Canberra
Australia

Terence Wood (Contact Author)

Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Public Policy ( email )

7 Liversidge Street
Lennox Crossing
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory ACT 0200
Australia

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
138
Abstract Views
712
Rank
320,273
PlumX Metrics