The Puzzling Practice of Paying “Cash for Votes”

Autor(en)

Anand Murugesan, Jean-Robert Tyran

Abstrakt

The expression “cash-for-votes” describes a form of vote buying in which candidates for office pay individuals in exchange for their votes. That practice undermines the functioning of democracy but is pervasive in many parts of the world, especially in the Global South. We discuss estimates of cash-for-votes and rational choice theories to explain their existence. Cash-for-votes under secret ballots is puzzling as secret ballots make it impossible to verify an individual’s vote. We discuss the behavioral and experimental literature emphasizing factors such as reciprocity, unsophisticated voting, and inequality aversion, which complement standard economic explanations of the phenomenon.

Organisation(en)

Wiener Zentrum für Experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre

Externe Organisation(en)

Central European University Vienna

Band

10504

Publikationsdatum

06-2023

ÖFOS 2012

502027 Politische Ökonomie, 502057 Experimentelle Ökonomie

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 10 – Weniger Ungleichheiten

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/the-puzzling-practice-of-paying-cash-for-votes(3a8c54b8-2271-406b-a97b-fce98920923d).html