Fiscal Restraints and Voter Welfare

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  • 1 January 2005
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      • Published in RePEc
Abstract
This paper explores the logic of …scal restraints in a political agencymodel with both moral hazard and adverse selection. The role of thepolitical process is both to discipline incumbents who may act againstthe public interest and to sort in those politicians who are most likelyact in voters'interests. We use the model to examine the optimality ofine¢ cient taxation, limits on the size of government, increasing trans-parency, and yardstick competition. Some conclusions are surprising.For example, we show that some forms of …scal restraint can only bedesirable when incumbents are su¢ ciently likely to be benevolent.We are grateful to Jim Hines and a number of seminar participants for insightfulcomments.1

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