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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. 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.
    2. 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).
    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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