TY - JOUR
T1 - Fiscal conservatism in a new democracy
T2 - "sophisticated" versus "naïve" voters
AU - Arvate, Paulo Roberto
AU - Avelino, George
AU - Tavares, José
PY - 2009/2/1
Y1 - 2009/2/1
N2 - We use data from gubernatorial elections in Brazil to test the electoral reactions of "sophisticated" and "naïve" voters to fiscal surpluses. Our results complement Brender and Drazen [Brender, Adi, and Drazen, A., (2005b), "How do budget deficits and economic growth affect reelection prospects? Evidence from a large cross-section of countries", NBER Working Paper 11862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts]: we find no evidence of fiscal illusion while, in some cases, a fiscal surplus may actually increase the probability of reelection.
AB - We use data from gubernatorial elections in Brazil to test the electoral reactions of "sophisticated" and "naïve" voters to fiscal surpluses. Our results complement Brender and Drazen [Brender, Adi, and Drazen, A., (2005b), "How do budget deficits and economic growth affect reelection prospects? Evidence from a large cross-section of countries", NBER Working Paper 11862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts]: we find no evidence of fiscal illusion while, in some cases, a fiscal surplus may actually increase the probability of reelection.
KW - Budget deficits
KW - Elections
KW - Fiscal conservatism
KW - Political cycles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=58549103107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.econlet.2008.11.030
DO - 10.1016/j.econlet.2008.11.030
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:58549103107
SN - 0165-1765
VL - 102
SP - 125
EP - 127
JO - Economics Letters
JF - Economics Letters
IS - 2
ER -
