Political Economy GV307 Assignment

Solution.pdf

 

According to Treisman (2007) what is the strongest predictor/correlate of the level of corruption across countries? (Limit your answer to 15 words/symbols) 

2. Consider the utility function below where a firm gets positive utility from its market income (theta) plus a government provided subsidy R. However, the firm can only gain this subsidy by paying a campaign contribution to the government (C). The higher the campaign contribution, the higher fraction of the government subsidy the firms receives, represented by the term RC. However, paying the campaign contribution involves an opportunity costs represented by C squared. 

Ufirm = θ + RC − C2 

a. 10 % 

What level of campaign contribution maximizes the firm’s utility? (Hint: Use first-order-condition). Show calculations. 

b. 5 % 

According to the previous result, what happens to the level of campaign contribution, as the size of the government subsidy increases? Limit your answer to 20 words/symbols. 

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2.1 Now consider the government’s utility function below, where the government get utility from the campaign contributions paid by the firm C (as determined by the firm’s maximization of its utility with regards to C) and popular support (rho) which is declining with the level of subsidies (R) provided to the firm. 

Ugovernment = C(maxUfirm) + ρR 

a. 15 % 

What level of subsidies maximizes the government’s utility, when taking into account the firm’s provision of C? (Hint: Use first-order-condition and remember the solution from 2.a.). Show calculations. 

b. 5 % 

According to the previous result, when is the government more likely to increase the level of subsidies? Limit your answer to 40 words/symbols. 

3. Consider the extend form game below, where and autocrat has the choice between accepting an aid-for-policy deal, and the elite has to make the choice between replacing or not replacing the autocrat. Pay-offs for the autocrat are on the left and pay-offs of the elite is on the right. If the autocrat stays in power, she gets 2, if not she gets 0. If the autocrat accepts the deal and stays in power, the gets an additional A which is the value for the aid program. If the policy is implemented (which only happens if the autocrat accepts the deal and stays in power), it imposes a cost (P) on the elite. If the elite does not replace the autocrat, it receives a pay-off of R. If it replaces the autocrat, it gets WR, where W is the winning coalition size, which can vary from 0 to 1. 

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a. 5 % 

Given that that the autocrat has accepted the aid-for-policy deal, under which circumstances will the elite choose to replace the autocrat? Limit your answer to 20 words/symbols. 

b. 10 % 

Which conditions need to be fulfilled in order for “accept aid-for-policy” and “do not replace autocrat” to emerge as the Nash equilibrium? Limit your answer to 20 words/symbols. 

c. 5 % 

According to the model above, in which type of autocratic political systems are the autocrat more likely to accept aid-for-policy deals? Limit your answer to 20 words/symbols. 

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4. 5 % 

According to the results in Mesquita and Smith (2009) do former colonies of OECD countries receive more or less aid than other countries conditional of receiving aid in the first place. Limit your answer to 15 words/symbols. 

5. 10 % 

According to Ross (2008) which are the three mechanism causing oil production wealth to decrease female labor market participation in developing countries? Limit your answer to 100 words/symbols. 

6. a. 5 % 

According to model 1 in table 2 from Li (2009), what are the effects being a democracy on the annual number of expropriation acts? Limit your answer to 25 words/symbols. 

b. 5 % 

According to model 2 in regression table 2 from Li (2009) and the associated text, what explains the difference between the level of expropriations in democracies and autocracies? Limit your answer to 20 words/symbols. 

7. Consider the model developed by Johns and Wellhausen (2016). 

a. 5 % Under what conditions does the government break the contract? Limit your answer to 55 words/symbols. 

b. 5 % What does an increase in λi (economic link between the target and partner firm) do to the probability that the government will honor its contract and why? Limit your answer to 40 words/symbols 

c. 5 % What does an increase in v (target firm value) do to the probability that the government will honor its contract and why? Limit your answer to 80 words/symbols 

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