The Supply and Demand of Good Politicians

Abstract

We study the role of candidate supply and voter demand in political selection. Using two large province-representative surveys and data on actual local politicians, we separately measure the characteristics of potential candidates and how voters value these characteristics. We apply this approach to candidate integrity in Italy, focusing on organized crime infiltration of local politics. Individuals willing to enter politics are positively selected on competence but negatively selected on integrity, while voters place a high value on integrity. Across provinces, lower integrity among potential candidates is not associated with lower voter demand for integrity. These findings point to a supply-side source of representation failure, which we quantify in money-metric terms.