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Politicians’ payments in a proportional party system

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  • Berg, Heléne

Abstract

Are there monetary returns to politics? This question is approached in this paper, as one of few to quantify the monetary returns to holding political office in a country with proportional representation system. I apply a difference-in-difference setting with a carefully chosen control group to rich data on candidates to the Swedish national parliament. Both short- and long-run effects of being elected on different types of income are estimated. Results show that, yes, mostly thanks to relatively high remuneration while still in office, politics can yield positive monetary returns. In the long-run however, the effect is instead compositional in the sense that ex-politicians receive more pension income and work less.

Suggested Citation

  • Berg, Heléne, 2020. "Politicians’ payments in a proportional party system," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:128:y:2020:i:c:s0014292120301355
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103504
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    Cited by:

    1. Auerbach, Jan, 2022. "Productive Office and Political Elitism," MPRA Paper 114582, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Berg, Heléne, 2020. "On the returns to holding political office (Is it worth it?)," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 840-865.
    3. Marco Bertoni & Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Cappellari & Maria De Paola, 2023. "The long-run earnings effects of winning a mayoral election," LISER Working Paper Series 2023-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Returns to politics; Difference-in-difference;

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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