Distributive politics inside the city? The political economy of Spain's Plan E

Carozzi, Felipe ORCID: 0000-0002-0458-5531 and Repetto, Luca (2017) Distributive politics inside the city? The political economy of Spain's Plan E. SERC Discussion Papers (SERCDP0212). Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

Preview

Text - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview

• Publisher

Abstract

We study the allocation of investment projects by municipal governments across groups of voters using data from a fiscal stimulus program carried out in Spain between 2009 and 2011. This program provided municipalities with a large endowment to spend in public investments and required the geocoding of each individual project. Combining these data with disaggregated election information at the census area level, we study whether politicians use expenditures to target their supporters or to raise turnout. Estimates from regression, matching and RDD methods show no evidence of local governments targeting areas of core support. Instead, investment goes disproportionately to low turnout areas, suggesting that politicians use funds to increase participation. We confirm this hypothesis by showing that, in the following elections, turnout is increased in areas that received more investment. Our results suggest that mobilization can be a force in shaping the allocation of resources across voter groups within cities.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Authors
Divisions:	Spatial Economics Research Centre
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2017 07:30
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 04:10
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/83631

Actions (login required)

View Item