Add to ORKGThis paper studies the characteristics of the ghost deputies of the FrenchNational Assembly, i.e. deputies who do not have any official recorded activityover a whole year. Using a rich dataset providing various information about alldeputies from 1959 to 2012, the results indicate that the typical ghost deputyis an old man with a low level of schooling, member of a large party whichdoes not support the government and who is elected in jurisdiction with a lowlevel of political competition. However, personal characteristics are less andless correlated with performance over the years. Finally, ghost deputies facemore difficulties to achieve reelection, but are penalized only at the first round,voters exclusively considering national facto...