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Public Employees as Politicians: Evidence from Close Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2017

ARI HYYTINEN ,
JAAKKO MERILÄINEN ,
TUUKKA SAARIMAA ,
OTTO TOIVANEN  and
JANNE TUKIAINEN
ARI HYYTINEN*
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics (JSBE)
JAAKKO MERILÄINEN*
Affiliation:
Stockholm University
TUUKKA SAARIMAA*
Affiliation:
VATT Institute for Economic Research
OTTO TOIVANEN*
Affiliation:
Aalto University School of Business and University of Leuven
JANNE TUKIAINEN*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science and VATT Institute for Economic Research
*
Ari Hyytinen is a Professor, University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics (JSBE), P.O. Box 35, 40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland ([email protected]).
Jaakko Meriläinen is a PhD Candidate, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, IIES, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden ([email protected]).
Tuukka Saarimaa is a Senior Researcher, VATT Institute for Economic Research, Arkadiankatu 7, Helsinki, FI-00101 ([email protected]).
Otto Toivanen is a Professor, Department of Economics, Aalto University School of Business and a Professor, Department of Managerial Economics, University of Leuven, Arkadiankatu 7, 00100 Helsinki, Finland; Naamsestraat 69, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium ([email protected]).
Janne Tukiainen (corresponding author) is a Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science; and Senior Researcher, VATT Institute for Economic Research, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom; Arkadiankatu 7, Helsinki, FI-00101, Finland ([email protected]).
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Abstract

We analyze the effect of municipal employees’ political representation in municipal councils on local public spending. We use within-party, as-good-as-random variation in close elections in the Finnish open-list proportional election system to quantify the effect. One more councilor employed by the public sector increases spending by about 1%. The effect comes largely through the largest party and is specific to the employment sector of the municipal employee. The results are consistent with public employees having an information advantage over other politicians, and thus, being able to influence policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 112 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 68 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

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Footnotes

We thank Manuel Bagues, Thushyanthan Baskaran, Matz Dahlberg, Dominik Hangartner, Robert Inman, Tatiana Komarova, Benjamin Lauderdale, Eva Mörk, Oskar Nordström Skans, Torsten Persson, Heikki Pursiainen, Marko Terviö, and Guy Whitten for helpful comments. Seminar audiences at AEA San Francisco, BI Oslo, FEEAM Pori, EPSA Vienna, HECER Helsinki, IIES, IIPF Dublin, Uppsala and VATT Helsinki provided great feedback. We are also grateful to three anonymous reviewers and the editor, Ingo Rohlfing, for their thoughtful comments on the manuscript. Financial support from the Emil Aaltonen Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

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