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Vote Buying and Victory of Election: The Case of Taiwan

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  • Chyi-Lu Jang
  • Chun-Ping Chang

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of vote buying on the vote shares of multiple parties using maximum likelihood estimation of a Dirichlet distribution in a panel of 23 counties of Taiwan over the period of 1998-2008. We find that vote buying significantly influences the vote shares of multiple parties in Taiwan parliamentary elections. In particular, we find that vote buying reduces the likelihood of Chinese National Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) votes by 10% and 11%, respectively. Our results provide strong evidence that vote buying decreases the probability of electoral success. We conclude that vote buying does not ensure victory in Taiwan parliamentary elections, and, therefore, emphasize that vote buying is ineffective and counterproductive practice. We offer several possible explanations for why candidates use scarce resources for this illegal practice during election campaigns. These results are robust to group logit model with seemingly unrelated regressions.

Suggested Citation

  • Chyi-Lu Jang & Chun-Ping Chang, 2016. "Vote Buying and Victory of Election: The Case of Taiwan," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(5), pages 591-606.
    • Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2016:y:2016:i:5:id:576:p:591-606
    DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.576
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Taiwan; Dirichlet distribution; vote shares; vote buying;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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