The Effects of Election Proximity on Participatory Shirking: The Staggered‐Term Chamber as a Laboratory. Issue 4 (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fukumoto, Kentaro; Matsuo, Akitaka
• Is Part Of: Legislative studies quarterly. Volume 40:Issue 4(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 599
• Page End: 625
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: Legislative bodies -- Periodicals; Parlement; Procédure législative; Système parlementaire; Étude comparée (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 328
• DOI: 10.1111/lsq.12090
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0362-9805

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>This study discusses a downside of electoral pressure. As elections approach, legislators reduce their effort in legislative activities, albeit while increasing their efficiency. To show this, we propose a new, natural experimental design exploiting staggered legislative election calendars to identify the effect of approaching elections. Two‐way natural blocking improves the balance of pretreatments and an instrumental variable approach addresses noncompliance by retirees. Our analysis of the Japanese House of Councillors demonstrates that legislators up for election show up in the chamber less often than those not facing election; however, when they do show up and speak, they tend to speak longer.</p> </abstract>