Can Voters Reward Prudent Managers of Public Funds in Kenya?

About this event

I will be presenting some preliminary results from a field experiment carried out during the 2013 Kenyan national elections. When the political class is widely perceived to be corrupt, can citizens distinguish between the politicians who are prudent managers of public funds from the politicians who mismanage funds? This project takes a different approach to most anti-corruption information campaigns, in positing that citizens may assume that their leaders are stealing public funds, even when they are not. It examines if information about politician management of public funds can improve citizen support for prudent managers, as well as reducing support for poorly performing ones. Moreover, it compares citizen estimates to audit estimates of politician performance in public fund management, and examines the extent to which individuals can recall information over time.