title: Effect of holding office on the behavior of politicians.
abstract: Reciprocity is central to our understanding of politics. Most political exchanges-whether they involve legislative vote trading, interbranch bargaining, constituent service, or even the corrupt exchange of public resources for private wealth-require reciprocity. But how does reciprocity arise? Do government officials learn reciprocity while holding office, or do recruitment and selection practices favor those who already adhere to a norm of reciprocity? We recruit Zambian politicians who narrowly won or lost a previous election to play behavioral games that provide a measure of reciprocity. This combination of regression discontinuity and experimental designs allows us to estimate the effect of holding office on behavior. We find that holding office increases adherence to the norm of reciprocity. This study identifies causal effects of holding office on politicians' behavior.
authors.affiliation: Independent Research Consultant, San Diego‎, CA‎ 92116.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Enemark
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0521.
authors.forename: Clark C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science and School of Law, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708.
authors.forename: Mathew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: McCubbins
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3435 seimbri@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seim
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011057:Politics; D015024:Zambia
keywords: behavioral games; corruption; legislative bargaining; reciprocity; regression discontinuity