Local favoritism in at-large proportional representation systems

Pork barrel spending is typically attributed to the strategic behavior of political elites hoping to be electorally rewarded by voters residing in their districts. Such behavior is expected to depend on the incentives imposed by the electoral system. We estimate the causal effect of local representa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public economics 2016-11, Vol.143, p.15-26
Main Authors: Fiva, Jon H., Halse, Askill H.
Format: Article
Language:eng ; nor
Subjects:
Distributive politics
Regression discontinuity design
Voting behavior
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Summary:Pork barrel spending is typically attributed to the strategic behavior of political elites hoping to be electorally rewarded by voters residing in their districts. Such behavior is expected to depend on the incentives imposed by the electoral system. We estimate the causal effect of local representation in a closed-list proportional representation system where individual candidates have no clear electoral incentive to favor their hometown. Using data from Norwegian regional governments, we still find a hometown bias. We document that municipalities with a representative on the regional council from the same party as the regional governor tend to obtain more funding for local investments. Citizens also tend to vote more often for parties whose gubernatorial candidate is from their own hometown, consistent with expectations of particularistic benefits. A possible explanation is that regional council members are often recruited from local politics and remain loyal to their roots. We find no evidence that regional council experience affects politicians' future career prospects at the local level. •We study distributive politics in a setting with at-large proportional representation.•We use data on the 18 regional governments in Norway covering the period 1976–2011.•We find that the regional government invests more in the hometowns of members of the ruling party.•Citizens tend to vote more often for parties whose governor candidate is from their own hometown.•Regional politicians' typical background from local politics appear to contribute to pork barreling.
ISSN:0047-2727
1879-2316
DOI:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.08.002