IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v16y2024i2p1-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial and Ethnic Representation in Local Government

Author

Listed:
  • Brian Beach
  • Daniel B. Jones
  • Tate Twinam
  • Randall Walsh

Abstract

Does the presence of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in a legislative body differentially impact outcomes for members of those groups? We study close elections between White and non-White candidates for California city council and the corresponding impact on housing values, a summary statistic for neighborhood investment. We find electing non-White rather than White candidates generates differential home value gains in majority non-White neighborhoods. This result, which is not explained by correlations between candidate race and political affiliation or neighborhood racial composition and income, suggests that increased representation can reduce racial disparities. Our results strengthen with increased city-level segregation and council member pivotality.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Beach & Daniel B. Jones & Tate Twinam & Randall Walsh, 2024. "Racial and Ethnic Representation in Local Government," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 1-36, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:1-36
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200430
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200430
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200430.appx
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200430.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20200430?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:1-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.