TY  - JOUR
AU  - Besley,Timothy
AU  - Case,Anne
TI  - Does Electoral Accountability Affect Economic Policy Choices?  Evidence from Gubernatorial Term Limits
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4575
PY  - 1993
Y2  - December 1993
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4575
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4575.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Anne Case
367 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-2177
Fax: 609/258-5974
E-Mail: accase@princeton.edu
AB  - This paper uses data from U.S. states to investigate whether electoral accountability affects economic policy choices.  We set up a model in which the possibility of being re-elected may curtail opportunistic behavior by incumbent governors.  We find that facing a binding term limit affects choices on taxes, expenditures, state minimum wages and mandates on workers' compensation.  Such effects are found also to vary with the party affiliation of the incumbent.  The Democratic party also appears to suffer at the polls following the term of a lame-duck, Democratic incumbent.
ER  -