Do individual disclosure rules for parliamentarians improve government effectiveness?
Journal
Economics of Governance
ISSN
1435-6104
ISSN-Digital
1435-8131
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2011-12
Author(s)
Abstract
The pros and cons of stricter disclosure rules for parliamentarians are hotly debated. Some argue that disclosure rules for parliamentarians increase transparency of the legislative branch, leading to lower levels of rent-seeking and corruption, increased citizen trust in parliament, and better quality of law-making. Others argue that disclosure rules endanger the privacy of parliamentarians, that their introduction would stop businesspeople and lawyers from running for seats, which would decrease the quality of law-making. This is the first attempt to empirically test these conjectures on the composition of parliament empirically. We find that the introduction of disclosure rules is usually not accompanied by a significant shift in the proportion of lawyers and businesspeople in parliament.
Language
English
Keywords
Studies
Economic rent
Ethics
Parliamentary elections-UK
Corruption in government
HSG Classification
not classified
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Publisher place
Heidelberg
Volume
12
Number
4
Start page
301
End page
324
Pages
21
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
206303