Televising legislatures: Some thoughts on whether politicians are search goods: 1. Introduction

Economists generally agree that repeat elections limit opportunistic behavior by politicians (e.g., Amacher and Boyes, 1978; Barro, 1973; Ferejohn, 1986; Kalt and Zupan, 1984; Nelson, 1976; and Telser, 1976). The typical approach has been to model political brand name in the same way as Klein and Leffler (1981), Telser (1980), and others have modelled it for firms--with repeat purchase mechanisms guaranteeing quality by threatening the loss of quasi-rents earned on sunk investments. Recently, Crain and Goff (1986) have helped to challenge this received wisdom by claiming that politicians are search goods.