The aim of this paper is to determine whether it is necessary to increase available resources to local governments or if better use of these funds is sufficient. The paper contributes to the literature by looking both at the supply and demand for public health services. If the demand is...

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of mayor's characteristics (education, experience and gender) on fiscal indicators of Brazilian municipalities. We use regression discontinuity and the outcomes of close elections to identify causal effects for 2000, 2004 and 2008. We find...