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Selective Accountability: Performance Indicators and Legislators’ Behavior

The médialab is pleased to welcome Tom Buchot (ENS Lyon, CERGIC) for a seminar on how performance indicators influence legislators' behavior.

Event, Research Seminar

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salle Goguel, 56 rue des saint pères, 75007 Paris

Abstract

Performance indicators transform political press coverage, yet their effects on legislators’ behavior remain unstudied. We address this gap by studying two French websites that compute such indicators: Nosdeputes.fr and Nossenateurs.fr. We compile a comprehensive dataset of press articles identifying all mentions of legislators’ performance indicators to assess their impact and the role of media coverage. 

We find a positive effect on performance that is mainly driven by general press coverage, indicating that monitoring tools must be visible to have a significant impact. Moreover, the effect is not driven by legislators explicitly mentioned. 

While indicators prompt some manipulation—e.g., increased copy-pasting—there is no evi-dence of strategic inflation in amendments or speeches. Thus, we conclude that indicators enhance collective but not individual accountability, with limited adverse effects.

Biography

Tom Buchot is a PhD candidate at ENS Lyon and the Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict (CERGIC) since September 2023, under the supervision of Sophie Hatte.

His research focuses on the role of institutions in the formation of nations and political systems. He is particularly interested in how state control, media narratives, and historical contexts shape collective identities, political behavior, and governance dynamics.

Practical information

This seminar will take place in person and in english, on Tuesday, May 20th,2025 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, in room Goguel, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.