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Appointed public officials and local favoritism: Evidence from the German states

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  • Baskaran, Thushyanthan
  • Lopes da Fonseca, Mariana

Abstract

We study the local favoritism of appointed German state ministers. Matching hand-collected data on ministers’ place of residence to a sample of more than 8,000 west German municipalities during the period 1994–2013, we find that the home municipality of a state minister experiences higher employment growth than control municipalities. Given the institutional context, this effect is ostensibly due to apolitical favoritism (home bias) rather than electoral considerations. We conclude that favoritism may lead to a distortion in the allocation of public resources even in contexts with strong political institutions.

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  • Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Lopes da Fonseca, Mariana, 2018. "Appointed public officials and local favoritism: Evidence from the German states," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181574, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181574
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    2. Guglielmo Barone & Guido de Blasio & Elena Gentili, 2020. "Politically connected cities: Italy 1951-1991," Working Papers wp1158, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Francesco Ferlenga, 2023. "Better to be direct? Evidence from the abolition of direct elections in Italian local governments," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 822-891, November.
    4. Olle Folke & Linna Martin & Johanna Rickne & Matz Dahlberg, 2021. "Politicians' neighbourhoods: Where do they live and does it matter?," Discussion Papers 2021-03, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    5. Francis OSEI-TUTU & Laurent WEILL, 2023. "Regional Favoritism and Access to Credit," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2023-04, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    6. Adam Pilny & Felix Roesel, 2020. "Are Doctors Better Health Ministers?," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(4), pages 498-532.
    7. Asatryan, Zareh & Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Birkholz, Carlo & Hufschmidt, Patrick, 2023. "Favoritism by the governing elite," Ruhr Economic Papers 1029, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    8. Dai, Min & Li, Hui, 2023. "Hometown favoritism in traffic citations: Evidence from China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    9. Mattos, Enlinson & Politi, Ricardo & Morata, Rodrigo, 2021. "Birthplace favoritism and the distribution of budget amendments in Brazil: Evidence from nondistrict elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distributive politics; Favoritism; Employment growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

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