It is our pleasure to announce the publication of Value for Money in Purchasing Votes? Vote-buying and Voter Behavior in the Laboratory, the first Research and Innovation Grants Working Paper produced under the Democracy Fellows and Grants (DFG) program, which is funded through USAID’s Center of Excellence in Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG Center) and managed by IIE. Written by researchers Jessica Leight at Williams College, Rohini Pande at Harvard University, and Laura Ralston at the World Bank, the research examines how vote-buying influences voter decisions in the ballot box and voter willingness to tolerate other corrupt behavior of the vote-buying politician.

 

This paper is the first of several in the DFG Research and Innovation Grants Working Papers Series, which is part of USAID's Learning Agenda for the DRG sector that seeks to bring the very best theory, evidence, and practical guidance to inform DRG strategic planning and project design. More papers in this series will be published throughout 2016, and made available on DFG’s website.