Do Incompetent Politicians Breed Populist Voters? Evidence from Italian Municipalities

Federico Boffa, Vincenzo Mollisi and Giacomo Ponzetto

No 17997, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Poor performance by the established political class can drive voters towards anti-establishment outsiders. Is the ineffectiveness of incumbent politicians an important driver of the recent rise of populist parties? We provide an empirical test exploiting a sharp discontinuity in the wage of local politicians as a function of population in Italian municipalities. We find that the more skilled local politicians and more effective local government in municipalities above the threshold cause a significant drop in voter support for the populist Five-Star Movement in regional and national elections. Support for incumbent governing parties increases instead.

Keywords: Populism; Government efficiency; Quality of politicians; Political agency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D73 H70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03
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Related works:
Working Paper: Do Incompetent Politicians Breed Populist Voters? Evidence from Italian Municipalities (2024)
Working Paper: Do Incompetent Politicians Breed Populist Voters? Evidence from Italian Municipalities (2023)
Working Paper: Do incompetent politicians breed populist voters? Evidence from Italian municipalities (2023)
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