Abandon ship? Party brands and politicians’responses to a political scandal

Gianmarco Daniele, Benny Geys and Sergio Galletta

No 2018/03, Working Papers from Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB)

Abstract: How do politicians react to a political earthquake? In this article, we study politicians’ – rather than voters’ – responses to the main political scandal in Italian recent history (Tangentopoli), and overcome endogeneity concerns by analysing the local implications of this national corruption scandal. We find that local politicians withdraw support for incumbents in parties hit by Tangentopoli – inducing early government terminations in such municipalities. Moreover, politicians in parties hit by the scandal exhibit higher rates of party switching and lower re-running rates. By decreasing the value of the party “brand”, scandals thus become transmitted across politicians and levels of government via partisan cues.

Keywords: Accountability; corruption; party cues; brands; multi-level governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H30 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Abandon ship? Party brands and politicians' responses to a political scandal (2020)
Working Paper: Abandon Ship? Party Brands and Politicians' Responses to a Political Scandal (2017)
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