Profesores Escuela de Gobierno y Transformación Pública

Dr. Francisco Cantu "Groceries for Votes? Clientelistic Strategies in Mexico's 2012 Election"

 

Abstract: 

 

While most theories on clientelism take the electoral returns of this practice as granted, most of the empirical analyses sustaining this claim are underdeveloped. This article contributes to an understanding of voters’ responses to clientelism by es-timating its electoral effects during the 2012 presidential election in Mexico. In partic-ular we evaluate the effects of the distribution of gift cards to voters before the election day. We estimate the effects of this instance on electoral results by considering the dis-tances between voters’ residences and the closest store at which they could cash out the cards. We find significant and opposite effects of the store proximity on the vote shares for the two front-runner candidates in the presidential election, supporting the vote-buying claims. However, the magnitude of the effects falls short of the opposi-tion’s estimations. The results follow recent theoretical accounts of the strategies that parties use to target voters and overcome some common limitations for measuring the electoral returns of vote-buying.

 

Fecha: 18 de marzo de 2015

Lugar: Campus Santa Fe, Aula Magna 2

Horario: 12:00 a 14:00

Público: Abierto