IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v17y2016i1p69-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Re-electing MEPs: The factors determining re-election probabilities

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Frech

Abstract

By placing candidates on electoral lists for European elections, national parties hold a very powerful position in the (re-)election of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). This article analyses the factors or individual characteristics of MEPs that affect list placement decisions. I identify three possible national party goals in European elections, legislative leverage, loyalty and attractiveness to voters, and examine evidence for each. Based on a unique data set of German MEPs from 1999–2009, the analysis shows that national parties, in particular small parties, value MEPs from more powerful committees. National parties furthermore reward MEPs with national party positions during the European Parliament term. Surprisingly, I find little evidence that German parties reward very loyal parliamentarians.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Frech, 2016. "Re-electing MEPs: The factors determining re-election probabilities," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(1), pages 69-90, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:69-90
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116515615681
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116515615681
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116515615681?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Craig Volden & Alan E. Wiseman & Dana E. Wittmer, 2013. "When Are Women More Effective Lawmakers Than Men?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(2), pages 326-341, April.
    2. Emmanuel Sigalas, 2011. "When quantity matters: Activity levels and re-election prospects of Members of the European Parliament," RECON Online Working Papers Series 17, RECON.
    3. David S. Lee, 2001. "The Electoral Advantage to Incumbency and Voters' Valuation of Politicians' Experience: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Elections to the U.S..," NBER Working Papers 8441, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    5. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    6. Abdul Ghafar Noury & Simon Hix & Gérard Roland, 2007. "Democratic politics in the European Parliament," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7744, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Hobolt, Sara B. & Høyland, Bjørn, 2011. "Selection and Sanctioning in European Parliamentary Elections," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 477-498, July.
    8. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. James Lo, 2018. "Dynamic ideal point estimation for the European Parliament, 1980–2009," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 229-246, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Hix & Abdul Noury & Gerard Roland, 2018. "Is there a selection bias in roll call votes? Evidence from the European Parliament," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 211-228, July.
    2. Edoardo Bressanelli & Christel Koop & Christine Reh, 2016. "The impact of informalisation: Early agreements and voting cohesion in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(1), pages 91-113, March.
    3. León, Gianmarco, 2017. "Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 56-71.
    4. Clots-Figueras, Irma, 2011. "Women in politics: Evidence from the Indian States," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 664-690, August.
    5. Baccini, Leonardo & Impullitti, Giammario & Malesky, Edmund J., 2019. "Globalization and state capitalism: Assessing Vietnam's accession to the WTO," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 75-92.
    6. Bachtrögler, Julia & Oberhofer, Harald, 2018. "Euroscepticism and EU Cohesion Policy: The Impact of Micro-Level Policy Effectiveness on Voting Behavior," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 273, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    7. Zhiyuan Hou & Ellen Van de Poel & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Baorong Yu & Qingyue Meng, 2014. "Effects Of Ncms On Access To Care And Financial Protection In China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(8), pages 917-934, August.
    8. Johannes S. Kunz & Kevin E. Staub, 2016. "Subjective Completion Beliefs and the Demand for Post-Secondary Education," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 878, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    9. Upton, Joanna B. & Lentz, Erin C., 2016. "Finding Default? Understanding the drivers of default on contracts with farmers’ organizations under the World Food Programme Purchase for Progress Pilot," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235656, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Sarbu, Miruna, 2022. "The impact of industry 4.0 on innovation performance: Insights from German manufacturing and service firms," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    11. Romano, Joseph P. & Wolf, Michael, 2017. "Resurrecting weighted least squares," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 1-19.
    12. Claus Michelsen & Peter Boenisch & Benny Geys, 2014. "(De)Centralization and voter turnout: theory and evidence from German municipalities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 469-483, June.
    13. Potrafke, Niklas & Rösch, Marcus & Ursprung, Heinrich, 2020. "Election systems, the “beauty premium” in politics, and the beauty of dissent," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Fredriksson, Per G. & Wang, Le, 2011. "Sex and environmental policy in the U.S. House of Representatives," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 228-230.
    15. Giuseppe Albanese & Guido de Blasio, 2016. "Civic Capital and Development: Italy, 1951-2001," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 47-64.
    16. Maria Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2014. "The impact of closeness on electoral participation exploiting the Italian double ballot system," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 467-479, September.
    17. Philippe Cyrenne, 2016. "The Determinants of Dual Distribution Revisited," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 167-182, July.
    18. Carin van der Cruijsen & David-Jan Jansen & Jakob de Haan, 2015. "How Much Does the Public Know about the ECB’s Monetary Policy? Evidence from a Survey of Dutch Households," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 11(4), pages 169-218, December.
    19. Ferreira, Fernando & Gyourko, Joseph, 2014. "Does gender matter for political leadership? The case of U.S. mayors," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 24-39.
    20. Marco Calaresu & Moris Triventi, 2019. "Governing by contract as a way to reduce crime? An impact evaluation of the large-scale policy of security pacts," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(2), pages 255-279, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:69-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.