Vote buying or (Political) business (cycles) as usual?
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Peer-reviewed
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Abstract
jats:p We report robust evidence of a new short-run monetary election cycle: the monthly growth rate of the money supply (M1) around elections is higher than in other months in a sample of low- and middle-income countries. We hypothesize this is related to systemic vote buying. Consistent with this, we find no cycle in authoritarian countries and countries with strong political institutions and a pronounced cycle in elections where international election monitors reported vote buying or in close elections. Using survey data on daily consumer expenditures, we show that within-household consumption of food increases in the days before elections. </jats:p>
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Keywords
38 Economics, 3801 Applied Economics
Journal Title
Review of Economics and Statistics
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0034-6535
1530-9142
1530-9142
Volume Title
102
Publisher
MIT Press - Journals