TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Baskaran, Thushyanthan
AU  - Hessami, Zohal
AU  - Schirner, Sebastian
        TI  - Young versus Old Politicians in Local Politics
        PY  - 2024/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17009
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17009
        AB  - Do young politicians prioritize other types of municipal spending than old politicians? We study this question using hand-collected candidate-level data on municipal elections (1996-2020), along with detailed administrative data on municipal spending in Bavaria. Our identification strategy makes use of within-party candidate-level races for marginal seats. Our findings indicate that municipalities with a higher proportion of young councilors allocate more resources to social spending. Further analysis reveals that this social spending increase is primarily driven by the expansion of public child care. Exploring mechanisms, we find evidence suggesting that young councilors affect policy choices in- directly through between- and within-party bargaining.

        KW  - young and old politicians
KW  - political selection
KW  - municipal spending
KW  - local councils
        ER  -