American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability, and Corruption: Evidence from US States
American Economic Review
(pp. 2456–81)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
We show that isolated capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption across US states, in line with the view that this isolation reduces accountability. We then provide direct evidence that the spatial distribution of population relative to the capital affects different accountability mechanisms: newspapers cover state politics more when readers are closer to the capital, voters who live far from the capital are less knowledgeable and interested in state politics, and they turn out less in state elections. We also find that isolated capitals are associated with more money in state-level campaigns, and worse public good provision.Citation
Campante, Filipe R., and Quoc-Anh Do. 2014. "Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability, and Corruption: Evidence from US States." American Economic Review 104 (8): 2456–81. DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.8.2456Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D73 Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
- H41 Public Goods
- H83 Public Administration; Public Sector Accounting and Audits
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics