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Who Is Punishing Corrupt Politicians - Voters or the Central Government? Evidence from the Brazilian Anti-Corruption Program

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  • Fernanda Brollo

    (Bocconi University)

Abstract

This paper presents evidence that central government has a very important role in improving the quality of oce-holders when political clientelism is present. Exploiting the exogenous variation of the release of the audit reports and the Brazilian institutional scheme, there is evidence that the central government reduces the amount of infrastructure transfers to municipalities with unveiled corrupt mayors after the release of the audit reports. Furthermore, the e ects of the dissemination of corruption information on the probability of incumbent's re-election seem to gradually disappear with time. Then, when the corruption information is gone, voters punish corrupt politicians as a consequence of the reduction on transfers.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernanda Brollo, 2008. "Who Is Punishing Corrupt Politicians - Voters or the Central Government? Evidence from the Brazilian Anti-Corruption Program," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-168, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-168
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    Cited by:

    1. Gustavo J. Bobonis & Luis R. Cámara Fuertes & Rainer Schwabe, 2016. "Monitoring Corruptible Politicians," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(8), pages 2371-2405, August.
    2. Gustavo J Bobonis & Luis R Cámara Fuertes & Rainer Schwabe, 2011. "The Dynamic Effects of Information on Political Corruption: Theory and Evidence from Puerto Rico," Working Papers tecipa-428, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    3. Farzana Afridi, & Sourav Bhattacharya, & Amrita Dhillon, & Eilon Solan,, 2021. "Electoral Competition, Accountability and Corruption:Theory and Evidence from India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 569, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    4. Lindsey Carson & Mariana Mota Prado, 2014. "Mapping Corruption and its Institutional Determinants in Brazil," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series iriba_wp08, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    5. Antonio Estache, 2014. "Infrastructure and Corruption: a Brief Survey," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2014-37, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

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