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Political selection in the skilled city

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  • Antonio Accetturo

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of citizens� human capital on the characteristics of elected politicians in democratic elections for the post of mayor. By using a change in the rules for Italian mayoral elections and a difference-in-differences estimator, I find that cities endowed with a larger amount of human capital tend to elect mayors that have a higher educational attainment and that were previously employed in skill-intensive jobs. This result is quantitatively small but robust to omitted variables or selection issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Accetturo, 2014. "Political selection in the skilled city," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 956, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_956_14
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. De Benedetto, Marco Alberto & De Paola, Maria, 2014. "Candidates' Quality and Electoral Participation: Evidence from Italian Municipal Elections," IZA Discussion Papers 8102, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Silvia Del Prete & Maria Lucia Stefani, 2015. "Women as ‘gold dust’: gender diversity in top boards and the performance of Italian banks," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1014, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Antonio Accetturo & Luciana Aimone & Enrico Beretta & Silvia Camussi & Luigi Cannari & Daniele Coin & Laura Conti & Roberto Cullino & Alessandro Fabbrini & Cristina Fabrizi & Giovanni Iuzzolino & Ales, 2015. "Deindustrialization and tertiarization: structural changes in North West Italy," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 282, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    4. Antonio Accetturo & Giuseppe Albanese & Alessio D'Ignazio, 2020. "A new phoenix? Large plants regeneration policies in Italy," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 878-902, November.
    5. Silvia Del Prete & Maria Lucia Stefani, 2021. "Women as “gold dust”: Gender diversity in top boards and the performance of Italian banks," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 50(2), July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    human capital externalities; political selection; cities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • H8 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues

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