”When will we ever learn?” An Economic Analysis of vote Buying (in English)
Kiriya Kulkolkarn, Supruet Thavornyutikarn and Tanapong Potipiti
One may wonder why Thais do not realise the corrupted consequences of vote buying, may hope that we could learn from our past mistakes, and eventually, vote buying is obliterated. Revealing evidences seem to disagree. Vote buying is still apparent in every election including the recent Senator Election. When will we ever learn? This article attempt to find an explanation for those aforementioned questions which is divided into two episodes. In the first episode, we answer the question why vote buying exists and why there is too little effort to solve this indecent problem. We have found that, in the equilibrium, i) every candidate buys votes; ii) costs of vote-buying are dissipated, thus, voters are not realised it as much as they should; iii) consequently, there is insufficient effort to correct the problem of vote-buying ; and iv) the government, then, plays a very important role in this matter. In the second episode, we answer the question why vote buying is effective – i.e. why a voter will vote for a buying candidate which offers the highest bid for his or her vote. We have found that under the incomplete contractible environment, vote buying is effective because it acts as the device to indicate credible commitment to indicate that voters will get some benefits form their Members of Parliament (MP).
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