Upcoming seminars
26/11/2025 at 1 pm
Julio Cáceres-Delpiano
(Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)
"Elected Neighbors and the Supply of Future Politicians "
Abstract: Recent research shows that municipal councilors direct resources and amenities toward the areas surrounding their own residences. This alone underscores the importance of residential diversification within councils, particularly in developing countries where inequalities between neighborhoods in the same municipality are especially pronounced. Yet evidence indicates that politicians frequently reside close to one another, which leads to spatially concentrated representation in municipal councils. This observation raises a key question: what drives the geographic concentration of politicians? If the election of one resident motivates others from the same neighborhood to run for office, the result may be a council that systematically under-represents other areas. The political process would unintentionally perpetuate, rather than alleviate, spatial inequalities within municipalities. Using precise data on the residences of municipal election candidates in Chile, we estimate the causal effect of electing a candidate on the emergence of future candidacies within a very narrow radius (300 meters) of their home. Applying a regression discontinuity design, we compare neighborhoods where a resident candidate was narrowly elected with those where a resident candidate narrowly lost by a similarly small margin. Our results indicate that the election of a neighbor prompts the emergence of new candidacies in the neighborhood. We find evidence consistent with several mechanisms behind these candidacies. Importantly, these new candidates are unlikely to succeed in the next election, suggesting that the process does not lead to a cycle of successive reductions in political representation.
How to attend the seminar:
The seminar will be on-site in room Módulo 1-301 and streamed.
To receive the seminar invitation with the streaming link, please send an email to teoriahistoriauam@gmail.com
Organisers: Jorge García Hombrados, Eugenio Zucchelli and Damian Pierri