Doctoral Dissertation Research: Voter Demand for the Public Provision of Private Goods

该项目调查了发展中民主国家中分发政府采购的私人物品（如电视机，笔记本电脑和衣服）的计划的兴起。这些方案现在惠及数百万受益者，每年耗资数十亿美元。批评者认为，有有限的证据表明，他们纠正市场失灵或构成一个有效的再分配机制。支持者认为，它们对于弥合市场运作留下的差距和确保更大的经济平等至关重要。这项研究旨在了解选民是否在投票箱中奖励私人物品计划，以及公民支持这些计划的条件。这项研究将需要进行一项调查，要求公民在具有不同特征的假设方案之间进行选择，例如商品类型，福利价值，对其他类型的政府支出的影响以及党派目标的程度。这项研究的另一个主要组成部分是分析一项分发数百万台免费彩电的计划对选举的影响。这项研究将有助于我们理解政府决定公开提供不同类别商品的政治逻辑，以及经济发展如何影响选民需求和提供集体和私人商品的政治动机。作为本研究的一部分，将收集的数据将是一个宝贵的资源，通过公民的偏好和这些偏好和政府action.This研究的对应关系的经验数据，为公共政策提供信息，旨在了解发展中民主国家实物再分配的政治经济学。它考察了选民支持和奖励分配消费品的大型政府计划的条件。研究假设，选民支持公共提供的私人物品，但这种支持是有条件的方案设计和实施。一些相关的理论命题将使用强制选择联合调查实验进行测试，在该实验中，受访者提供对随机分配特征的假设政府计划的陈述偏好。这种设计将深入了解选民如何权衡福利的类型和价值与资格标准等特征以及对医疗保健、教育和基础设施等其他类别政府支出的可能影响。此外，拟议的设计将揭示如何政治因素，如党派目标温和的支持。这些数据与一个最终分发了超过1500万台彩色电视机的计划的选举结果的差异分析相结合，以了解公民是否奖励这些计划，或者它们是否是投票决定中相对次要的考虑因素，而不是政客与公司和利益集团建立联系的机会。这项研究将提高我们对政治因素如何塑造政府提供私人和公共产品的努力的理论和实证理解。它还将提供洞察的条件下，我们可能会观察到一个从政治客户主义，并对基于提供集体商品在发展中民主国家的方案竞争的转变。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This project investigates the rise of programs in developing democracies that distribute government-procured private goods like televisions, laptops, and clothes. Such programs now reach millions of beneficiaries and cost billions of dollars each year. Critics contend that there is limited evidence that they correct market failures or constitute an efficient redistributive mechanism. Supporters argue that they are essential to bridging gaps left by the operation of markets and ensure greater economic equality. This research aims to understand if voters reward private goods programs at the ballot box, as well the conditions under which citizens support them. The research will entail a survey that asks citizens to choose between hypothetical programs with differing features, such as the type of good, the value of the benefit, the impact on other types of government expenditure, and the degree of partisan targeting. The other major component of the research is an analysis of the electoral effects of a program that distributed millions of free color televisions. The study will contribute to our understanding of the political logic of governments' decisions to publicly provide different classes of goods and how economic development affects voter demand and political incentives for providing collective and private goods. The data that will be collected as part of this study will be a valuable resource for informing public policy through empirical data on citizen preferences and the correspondence between these preferences and government action.This study aims to understand the political economy of in-kind redistribution in developing democracies. It examines the conditions under which voters support and reward large government programs that distribute consumer goods. The research hypothesizes that voters support the public provision of private goods but that this support is conditional on program design and implementation. A number of related theoretical propositions will be tested using a forced-choice conjoint survey experiment in which respondents provide stated preferences over pairs of hypothetical government programs with randomly assigned characteristics. This design will provide insights into how voters trade off the type and value of the benefit against features such as eligibility criteria and possible impacts on other categories of government spending such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure. In addition, the proposed design will shed light on how political factors such as partisan targeting moderate support. These data are paired with a difference-in-differences analysis of the electoral consequences of a program that eventually distributed over fifteen million color televisions to understand if citizens reward such programs or if they are a relatively minor consideration in voting decisions and an opportunity instead for politicians to forge links with firms and interest groups. The research will improve our theoretical and empirical understanding of how political factors shape government efforts to provide private and public goods. It will also provide insights into the conditions under which we are likely to observe a shift away from political clientelism and towards programmatic competition based on the provision of collective goods in developing democracies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.