Union institutions, and so on). Many politicians get into office through a democratic election, while others are selected or …Politicians are persons involved in the process of public policymaking in their role as members of governments … appointed to a public office. For many politicians politics is a full-time job, while for others it remains an activity in …

We develop a simple two period model to study the importance of motivational differences among politicians in … describing the role of elections and explaining policy choices. In our model, politicians differ in their motives of running … public office. Good politicians care about policies while bad politicians care about rent extraction. Voters want to control …

have a down-up characteristic. We show that voters cannot motivate politicians to invest in down-up policies by their … macroeconomic developments. Finally, we comment on practical issues when such contracts are used in election races …

When reelection is uncertain, the election mechanism may provide insufficient incentives to politicians to implement …