Exposure to corruption and political participation: Evidence from Italian municipalities
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Author / Producer
Date
2021-06
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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OPEN ACCESS
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Abstract
This paper aims to study the effects of exposure to corruption on all the aspects of political participation. Focusing on Italian municipalities in the period 1999–2014, we generate a daily and local measure of exposure to corruption, screening newspaper articles of the main Italian press agency. We concentrate on local elections and, in an event-study analysis, we find three main results. First, corruption exposure affects citizens' participation in election by reducing voter turnout. Second, corruption impacts on politicians’ participation: the number of candidates and electoral lists decreases after a scandal and candidates with political tenure are more likely to run. Finally, these changes affect local political outcomes as tenured politicians are more likely to be elected, while freshmen lose ground. These results suggest that exposure to corruption has general and negative effects on political participation, leading people to lose interest in politics.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
68
Pages / Article No.
102000
Publisher
Elsevier
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Corruption; Political participation; Political supply; Turnout; Political selection
Organisational unit
03988 - Köthenbürger, Marko / Köthenbürger, Marko