Just hire your spouse! Evidence from a political scandal in Bavaria

Björn Kauder and Niklas Potrafke

European Journal of Political Economy, 2015, vol. 38, issue C, 42-54

Abstract: We investigate a case of political favoritism in which members of the Bavarian parliament hired relatives as office employees who were paid using taxpayers' money. The family scandal was a much-discussed issue in the German media because of upcoming state and federal elections. Being involved in the scandal had no apparent effect on re-election prospects or voter turnout: for example, the total vote share of the reigning CSU increased from 47% in the 2008 election to 50% in the 2013 election in districts whose representatives were revealed to have hired relatives, resembling party gains elsewhere. Voters did not appear to punish the incumbent government. The CSU embodies Bavarian identity and was able to overcome the family scandal, as also had been the case in previous scandals.

Keywords: Political scandal; Favoritism; Nepotism; Re-election prospects; Voter turnout (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D72 H7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

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Working Paper: Just Hire your Spouse! Evidence from a Political Scandal in Bavaria (2014)
Working Paper: Just hire your spouse! Evidence from a political scandal in Bavaria (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:38:y:2015:i:c:p:42-54

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2014.12.007

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