IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v24y2024i2p597-647n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Separating the Accountability and Competence Effects of Mayors on Municipal Spending

Author

Listed:
  • Boetti Lorenzo

    (HERMES (Higher Education and Research on Mobility Regulation and the Economics of Local Services), Collegio Carlo Alberto, Piazza Arbarello 8, 10122, Torino, Italy)

  • Franzoni Federico

    (Department of Economics and Finance (DEF), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo A. Gemelli 1, 20123, Milano, Italy)

  • Galmarini Umberto

    (Department of Law, Economics and Cultures (DiDEC), Università dell’Insubria, Via S. Abbondio 12, 22100, Como, Italy)

  • Piacenza Massimiliano

    (Department of Law and Political, Economic and Social Sciences (DIGSPES), University of Piemonte Orientale, Via Cavour 84, 15121, Alessandria, Italy)

  • Turati Gilberto

    (Department of Economics and Finance (DEF), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Francesco Vito 1, 00168, Roma, Italy)

Abstract

The Italian legislation provides a two-term limits for mayors, but it allows term-limited mayors to pass on the torch to one of their deputies as candidates for mayorship. We exploit this feature of the electoral system to design a novel identification strategy for separating the effects of ‘accountability’ (the difference in performance between two politicians facing different incentives in terms of re-elections) and ‘competence’ (the difference in performance between two politicians with different experience in policy making). Using a panel of 1203 Italian municipalities, from 1998 to 2015, we find a significant role for competence but not for accountability in affecting municipal spending. Specifically, second-and-last-term mayors, and first-term mayors with previous experience as executive officers, spend less, on average, than inexperienced first-term mayors. We also discuss the policy implications of this finding.

Suggested Citation

  • Boetti Lorenzo & Franzoni Federico & Galmarini Umberto & Piacenza Massimiliano & Turati Gilberto, 2024. "Separating the Accountability and Competence Effects of Mayors on Municipal Spending," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 24(2), pages 597-647, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:24:y:2024:i:2:p:597-647:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2023-0093
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2023-0093
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bejeap-2023-0093?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    accountability; competence; term limits; Italian municipalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures

    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:bpj:bejeap:v:24:y:2024:i:2:p:597-647:n:5. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.