Umfang und Niveau der informationellen Automatisierung unterschiedlicher Behörden weichen in erheblichem Maße voneinander ab. Der direkte Vergleich von Finanzämtern, Staatsanwaltschaften und Kriminalpolizei in dieser Studie macht dies deutlich. Solche Unterschiede lassen sich nicht...

We evaluate the impact of a recent reform that sharply increased the salaries of Italian local politicians on electoral competition and the valence attributes of the candidates elected. Exploiting misaligned election dates across Italian cities, we propose a novel methodology, the time-shifted...

Do bigger legislatures lead to bigger government? We exploit a Brazilian reform that allocated the number of municipal council seats based on population thresholds in a regression discontinuity design. We find that larger councils have significantly higher public expenditures on social goods and...

In recent years, advanced democracies have witnessed a marked decline in candidates for local government office, undermining electoral competition and accountability and triggering a sheer political recruitment crisis. Although several factors may contribute to this trend — such as generalized...