The flypaper effect: Identifying areas for further research

The flypaper effect literature dates back three decades. It is overwhelmingly neoclassical in approach, attempting to improve the median voter demand model and/or temper it with public choice supply-side perspectives. Whilst this approach provided valuable early substantial analytical insights, more recent papers seem to have contributed only marginally to an understanding of the flypaper effect, if indeed it exists at all. Hence, as well as providing a long-overdue comprehensive review of the literature on the flypaper effect, this paper identifies more productive avenues for further research.