Voters' Responsiveness to public employment policies

This paper examines the electoral rewards for the distribution of public employment. We focus on the Spanish Plan for Rural Employment, a public jobs program introduced by the central government in two lagging regions. We evaluate voters' responsiveness to this policy using municipal-level elec...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Curto Grau, Marta
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/122321
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/122321
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Partits polítics
Eleccions
Programes electorals
Political parties
Elections
Political party platforms
Descripción
Sumario:This paper examines the electoral rewards for the distribution of public employment. We focus on the Spanish Plan for Rural Employment, a public jobs program introduced by the central government in two lagging regions. We evaluate voters' responsiveness to this policy using municipal-level electoral data and employ an estimator that combines difference-in-differences with propensity score matching. The main findings are that the program lead to an increase in the vote share for the ruling party in the treated municipalities. This effect is very persistent over the years, and it is unlikely to be explained by turnout buying