Does politician’s experience matter? Evidence from Peruvian local governments

How important for government performance is the on-the-job experience of politicians? This paper examines this question using the case of mayors in Peruvian municipalities and a sharp regression discontinuity design. We find evidence that experience has a significant, although small, effect on spending composition and coverage of some public services, such as electricity. There is, however, no significant effect on other measures of government policies, such as total spending, local taxes, or public investment. This lack of effect may reflect quick learning-by-doing or lack of electoral incentives for re-elected politicians. We find, for instance, that differences in technical capacity between rookie and experienced politicians disappear after few years and that, despite not facing term limits, experienced politicians are less likely to run, and win, the re-election. These findings challenge the view that politician’s on-the-job experience is important, and weaken arguments against term limits based on the need to retain experienced politicians.