TY - JOUR
T1 - Electoral design and voter welfare from the US Senate
T2 - Evidence from a dynamic selection model
AU - Gowrisankaran, Gautam
AU - Mitchell, Matthew F.
AU - Moro, Andrea
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, Zvi Eckstein, Barton Hamilton, Antonio Merlo, Larry Samuelson, Kenneth Wolpin, seminar participants at numerous institutions and 2002–2003 Industrial Organization graduate students at Harvard and Yale for their insightful comments and Anita Todd for editorial assistance. Gowrisankaran acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation (Grant SES-0318170).
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - Since 1914, the US Senate has been elected and incumbent senators allowed to run for reelection without limit. This differs from several other elected offices in the US, which impose term limits on incumbents. Term limits may harm the electorate if tenure is beneficial or if they force high quality candidates to retire but may also benefit the electorate if they cause higher quality candidates to run. We investigate how changes in electoral design affect voter utility by specifying and structurally estimating a dynamic model of voter decisions. We find that tenure effects for the US Senate are negative or small and that incumbents face weaker challengers than candidates running for open seats. Because of this, term limits can significantly increase voter welfare.
AB - Since 1914, the US Senate has been elected and incumbent senators allowed to run for reelection without limit. This differs from several other elected offices in the US, which impose term limits on incumbents. Term limits may harm the electorate if tenure is beneficial or if they force high quality candidates to retire but may also benefit the electorate if they cause higher quality candidates to run. We investigate how changes in electoral design affect voter utility by specifying and structurally estimating a dynamic model of voter decisions. We find that tenure effects for the US Senate are negative or small and that incumbents face weaker challengers than candidates running for open seats. Because of this, term limits can significantly increase voter welfare.
KW - Elections
KW - Incumbency advantage
KW - Selection
KW - Senate
KW - Tenure
KW - Term limits
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U2 - 10.1016/j.red.2007.04.005
DO - 10.1016/j.red.2007.04.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:37049034712
SN - 1094-2025
VL - 11
SP - 1
EP - 17
JO - Review of Economic Dynamics
JF - Review of Economic Dynamics
IS - 1
ER -