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Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 122 No. 4 2007

Electoral Bias and Policy Choice: Theory and Evidence

Tim Besley1; Ian Preston2

1 London School of Economics and Political Science · 2 University College London

Abstract

This paper develops an approach to studying how bias in favor of one party due to the pattern of electoral districting affects policy choice. We tie a commonly used measure of electoral bias to the theory of party competition and show how this affects party strategy in theory. The usefulness of the approach is illustrated using data on local government in England. The results suggest that reducing electoral bias leads parties to moderate their policies.

DOI
10.1162/qjec.2007.122.4.1473
Volume
122
Issue
4
Pages
1473-1510
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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