BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Incumbency advantage at municipal elections in Italy: a quasi-experimental approach

    De Benedetto, Marco Alberto (2014) Incumbency advantage at municipal elections in Italy: a quasi-experimental approach. Working Paper. Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    15287.pdf - Published Version of Record
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (2MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    We analyze the incumbency effect on a candidate’s electoral prospects using a large data set on Italian municipal elections held from 1993 to 2011. We apply a non-parametric Sharp Regression Discontinuity Design that compares candidates who barely win an election to those who barely lose, exploiting the fact that incumbency status changes discontinuously at the threshold of margin of victory of zero. We find that incumbents are more likely to win the competition compared to their challengers at the Italian municipal elections. The results are robust to different specifications and estimation strategies with excellent balance in observable characteristics. Also, the effect of interest seems to be larger in magnitude for municipalities located in the North of Italy compared to southern municipalities.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
    Additional Information: ISSN 1745-8587: BWPEF 1408
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Incumbency Status, Political Participation, Sharp RDD
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 20 May 2016 13:34
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:24
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/15287

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    342Downloads
    6 month trend
    598Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item