Janne Tukiainen (VATT Institute for Economic Research)

“Love Thy (Elected) Neighbor? Residential Segregation, Political Representation and Local Public Goods”

Abstract: We study geographic political representation and geographic distribution of local public goods within local jurisdictions using geo-coded data on politicians, the electorate and elementary schools. Descriptive analysis reveals that poorer neighborhoods are under-represented and that local politicians have a strong support base in their home neighbourhoods. Based on randomized election outcomes due to personal vote count ties, geographic representation has a causal effect on school closures. The probability of closure is cut in half when a candidate living close to the school is randomly elected. High-income residents react to closures by moving away from the neighborhood, thus reinforcing segregation.

JEL Classification: C21, D72, H75, R23
Keywords: Geographic representation, random elections, residential segregation, school closure

Joint with Oskari Harjunen and Tuukka Saarimaa.