Sending the Pork Home: Birth Town Bias in Transfers to Italian Municipalities

Felipe Carozzi () and Luca Repetto
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Felipe Carozzi: CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros, https://www.cemfi.es

Working Papers from CEMFI

Abstract: We ask whether the birthplaces of Italian members of Parliament are favoured in the allocation of central government transfers. Using a panel of municipalities for the years between 1994 and 2006, we find that municipal governments of legislators' birth towns receive larger transfers per capita. Exploiting the fact that some birth towns are outside of the district of election, we conclude that this result cannot be driven by re-election incentives. On the contrary, we show that these incentives discourage legislators from diverting resources to their birthplace. We present evidence that those transfers are a way for a politician to prepare the ground for a post-congressional career in the municipal administration.

Keywords: Pork-barrel; distributive policies; political economy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H72 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://www.cemfi.es/ftp/wp/1401.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Sending the pork home: Birth town bias in transfers to Italian municipalities (2016)
Working Paper: Sending the pork home: birth town bias in transfers to Italian municipalities (2016)
Working Paper: Sending the Pork Home: Birth Town Bias in Transfers to Italian Municipalities (2015)
Working Paper: Sending the pork home: birth town bias in transfers to Italian municipalities (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2014_1401

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