Is there an election cycle in public employment? Separating time effects from election year effects

Matz Dahlberg () and Eva Mörk ()
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Matz Dahlberg: Department of Economics, Postal: Uppsala University, P.O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

No 2008:4, Working Paper Series from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Do governments increase public employment in election years? This paper investigates this question by using data from Sweden and Finland, two coun¬tries that are similar in many respects but in which local elections are held at different points in time. We can thereby separate an election effect from other time effects. Our results indicate that there is a statistically significant election year effect in local public employment, a production factor that is highly visi¬ble in the welfare services provided by the local governments in the Scandina¬vian countries. The effect also seems to be economically significant; the municipalities employ 0.6 more full-time employees per 1,000 capita in election years than in other years (which correspond to an increase by approximately 1 percent).

Keywords: Election cycle; Public employment; Exogenous elections (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H72 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-pbe and nep-pol
Date: 2008-03-28

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Working Paper: Is there an election cycle in public employment? Separating time effects from election year effects (2008)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2008_004

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