TY - JOUR
T1 - Redistributive public employment
AU - Alesina, Alberto
AU - Baqir, Reza
AU - Easterly, William
N1 - Funding Information:
*We thank Ed Glaeser, Roberto Perotti, Andrei Shleifer, Jakob Svensson, two anonymous referees, and participants in seminars at Harvard, University of Chicago, and the World Bank for useful comments. We are especially grateful to the editor of this journal, Jan Brueckner, for extensive and useful suggestions. Alberto Alesina gratefully acknowledges financial support from an NSF grant through the NBER and is also grateful to the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University for support. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect views of the World Bank or its member countries.
PY - 2000/9
Y1 - 2000/9
N2 - Politicians may use "disguised" redistributive policies in order to circumvent opposition to explicit tax-transfer schemes. First, we present a theoretical model that formalizes this hypothesis. Next, we provide evidence consistent with the prediction of the model, namely that in U.S. cities, politicians use public employment as such a redistributive device. We find that city employment is significantly higher in cities where income inequality and ethnic fragmentation are higher.
AB - Politicians may use "disguised" redistributive policies in order to circumvent opposition to explicit tax-transfer schemes. First, we present a theoretical model that formalizes this hypothesis. Next, we provide evidence consistent with the prediction of the model, namely that in U.S. cities, politicians use public employment as such a redistributive device. We find that city employment is significantly higher in cities where income inequality and ethnic fragmentation are higher.
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U2 - 10.1006/juec.1999.2164
DO - 10.1006/juec.1999.2164
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034259263
SN - 0094-1190
VL - 48
SP - 219
EP - 241
JO - Journal of Urban Economics
JF - Journal of Urban Economics
IS - 2
ER -