@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp18576,
            	author={Neisser, Carina and Wehrhöfer, Nils},
            	title={Outside Income as a Signal: Evidence from Politicians and Voters},
            	year={2026},
	month={Apr},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={18576},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18576},
	abstract={We study how public disclosure of politicians’ outside income affects their behavior. We exploit a disclosure reform targeting German federal MPs and tax-return data in a difference-in-differences setup using unaffected state MPs as controls. MPs increase their outside income by 24%, driven by likely right-leaning MPs. A representative survey experiment uncovers that right-leaning voters interpret outside income as a signal of competence and hard work, while left-leaning voters associate it with weaker representation. Consistent with this, we show that newspapers cover right-leaning MPs’ outside activities more favorably. Our findings suggest that politicians strategically use public disclosure as a signaling tool.},
	keywords={tax data;outside income;politicians;income disclosure},
            }