1 论文标题The Effects of Democratization on Public Goods and Redistribution: Evidence from China
2 作者信息
Monica Martinez-Bravo
Gerard Padró i Miquel
Nancy Qian
Yang Yao
3 出处和链接（比如，NBER working paper No.11000）
Working Paper 18101
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18101
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
May 201
4 摘要

This study investigates the effects of introducing elections on public goods and redistribution in rural
China. We collect a large and unique survey to document the history of political reforms and economic
policies and exploit the staggered timing of the introduction of elections for causal identification. We
find that elections significantly increase public goods expenditure, the increase corresponds to demand
and is paralleled by an increase in public goods provision and local taxes. We also find that elections
cause significant income redistribution within villages. The results support the basic assumptions of
recent theories of democratization (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2000; Lizzeri and Persico, 2004). In
addition, we show that the main mechanism underlying the effect of elections is increased leader incentives.