Publication:
Demand and Supply Curves in Political Markets: Understanding the Problem of Public Goods and Why Governments Fail Them

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dc.contributor.authorKhemani, Stuti
dc.date.accessioned2017-10-20T21:18:50Z
dc.date.available2017-10-20T21:18:50Z
dc.date.issued2017-10
dc.description.abstractThis paper brings the economic tools of demand and supply curves to better understand how political markets shape the selection of government policies. It does so to tackle a problem at the intersection of political science and economics: government failure to pursue policies on the basis of sound technical evidence. Too often, the leaders who wield policy-making power within governments deliberately and knowingly ignore sound technical advice, or are unable to pursue it despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. The paper shows how the prevailing dominant explanation for suboptimal policies and weak institutions, of special interest and elite capture, can be understood as the selection of a point on the political demand curve by oligopolistic political competition. Further, it shows how elite capture is only one of many possible outcomes, and is endogenous to preferences and beliefs in society. Preferences in society for public goods (or the lack thereof), and beliefs about how others are behaving in the public sector, are the primitive or fundamental elements driving the shapes of political demand and supply curves and thence the selection of public policies and institutions. This framework highlights the need for future research to understand where political preferences and beliefs come from, which is essential to the design of institutions that address problems of public goods.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/688181507656703024/Demand-and-supply-curves-in-political-markets-understanding-the-problem-of-public-goods-and-why-governments-fail-them
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-8213
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/28548
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Paper;No. 8213
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectPUBLIC GOODS
dc.subjectPOLITICAL ECONOMY
dc.subjectINSTITUTIONS
dc.subjectNORMS
dc.subjectPREFERENCES
dc.titleDemand and Supply Curves in Political Marketsen
dc.title.subtitleUnderstanding the Problem of Public Goods and Why Governments Fail Themen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dc.typeDocument de travailfr
dc.typeDocumento de trabajoes
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleDemand and Supply Curves in Political Markets: Understanding the Problem of Public Goods and Why Governments Fail Them
okr.date.disclosure2017-10-10
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/688181507656703024/Demand-and-supply-curves-in-political-markets-understanding-the-problem-of-public-goods-and-why-governments-fail-them
okr.guid688181507656703024
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-8213
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum090224b0850ab6be_1_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum28057685
okr.identifier.reportWPS8213
okr.importedtrue
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/688181507656703024/pdf/WPS8213.pdfen
okr.statistics.combined3735
okr.statistics.dr688181507656703024
okr.statistics.drstats2671
okr.topicGovernance::Political Systems and Analysis
okr.topicGovernance::Politics and Government
okr.topicMacroeconomics and Economic Growth::Economic Theory & Research
okr.topicMacroeconomics and Economic Growth::Political Economy
okr.unitMacroeconomics and Growth Team, Development Research Group
relation.isAuthorOfPublication315c439c-aed7-40cf-b8fe-27ff72a00529
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery315c439c-aed7-40cf-b8fe-27ff72a00529
relation.isSeriesOfPublication26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
relation.isSeriesOfPublication.latestForDiscovery26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
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