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The Effect of Patronage Politics on City Government in American Cities, 1900-1910

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Rebecca Menes
Abstract

In this paper I explore the effect of patronage or machine' politics on government performance in American cities during the Progressive era. I use game theoretic models and an empirical analysis of spending and public goods provision during the first decade of the twentieth century in a cross section of American cities with and without governments dominated by political machines. The ability to buy votes relaxes the electoral constraints on the government. Taxes, budgets, municipal wages, and (unobserved) corruption are all predicted to rise under a patronage based regime. But in a city, patronage politics does not relax the incentives to provide public goods. A politician who buys his way into office will still be motivated to provide optimal levels of government goods and services because he can capture the resulting locational rents in higher taxes and graft. Empirically, city governments dominated by political machines paid city government employees more and had larger budgets but provided high levels of public goods.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6975.

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Date of creation: Feb 1999
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6975

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
N41 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
R53 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock

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  1. Murphy, Kevin M & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1993. "Why Is Rent-Seeking So Costly to Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 409-14, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. J. Bradford De Long & Andrei Shleifer, . "Princes and Merchants: City Growth Before the Industrial Revolution," J. Bradford De Long's Working Papers _111, University of California at Berkeley, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Mauro, Paolo, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Krueger, Anne O, 1993. "Virtuous and Vicious Circles in Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 351-55, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Glaeser, E.L. & Ades, A.F., 1993. "Trade and Circuses: Explaining Urban Giants," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1646, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
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  6. Joseph D. Reid, Jr. & Michael M. Kurth, 1992. "The Rise and Fall of Urban Political Patronage Machines," NBER Chapters, in: Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel, pages 427-445 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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