Abstract:
Development related funding is critical for the long-term growth of any country, but the
allocation of funds between politicians and different areas can vary due to various factors
and one important factor is the connections of politicians with those who approve or
allocate these funds. This paper attempts to determine whether the strength of political
connections impacts the allocation of development schemes across politicians in the
Faisalabad district of Punjab. Some of the questions we answer are: Do politicians favor
their own constituents with higher budget or more popular development projects? Does
the allocation of development funds impact the decisions of voters in elections? Also, are
there any differences in the popularity of projects, budget of projects and popularity of
projects approved by the local government as compared to district and provincial
government? Data on developmental schemes from the Faisalabad district has been used
to answer these questions. The data is from 2010-2016 with a total of 6900 development
schemes and covers the 8 towns, 11 national assembly constituencies and 22 provincial
constituencies of the Faisalabad district. The results show that the connections of
politicians play very important role in the allocation of the development projects. The
high budget projects are approved by the district and provincial government whereas the
most popular projects are approved by TMA’s and least popular by provincial
government. Further we find that the voters are myopic and the budget of project and
popularity of project executed by the politician impact the votes.
