Political Selection and Economic Policy

Autor: Jaakko Meriläinen
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Economic Journal. 132:3020-3046
ISSN: 1468-0297
0013-0133
Popis: Does political selection matter for policy in representative governments? I use administrative data on local politicians in Finland and exploit exogenous variation generated by close elections to show that electing more high-income, incumbent and competent politicians (who earn more than observably similar politicians) improves fiscal sustainability outcomes, but does not decrease the size of the public sector. I also provide suggestive evidence that electing more university-educated local councillors leads to more public spending without adverse effects on fiscal sustainability. I reconcile these findings with survey data on candidate ideology and demonstrate that different qualities are differentially associated with economic ideology.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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