Cash for Votes: Evidence from India

We examine consumption patterns around the time of elections to investigate vote-buying. Specifically, we combine data from state assembly elections in India with household-level consumer expenditure and employment surveys (conducted by the National Sample Survey Office) over the period 2004–12. Exploiting a difference-in-differences methodology, we estimate the positive effect elections have on reported consumption expenditures. We observe larger effects in swing areas but null effects for the poor. The total wage payments for the same period cannot justify the consumption spikes. Our results shed light on the mechanisms behind strategic vote-buying.