The Impact of Election Fraud on Government Performance

Abstract

Election fraud is considered pervasive throughout developing countries, raising concerns it can facilitate corruption and inhibit economic growth by preventing voters from holding elected officials accountable. This paper examines whether reducing election fraud causes improvements in government performance. To measure the type of government corruption and red tape that inhibits economic growth, I focus on building permit approvals in the Philippines, since delays in granting approvals are often associated with requests for bribes. To identify effects, I exploit a switch to automated elections in 2010 that made committing fraud more difficult through the use of stronger ballot security measures, timely counting of ballots, and simultaneous transmission of votes to various servers. Estimates from a research design comparing changes over time in previously high-fraud and low-fraud towns indicate that automated elections significantly reduced election fraud, as measured by digit-based tests. In addition, results indicate that this led to a sharp and sustained 15 percent increase in the number of building permits approved annually, leading to greater investment in the local economy.