The wage paid to politicians affects both the choice of citizens to run for an elective office and the performance of those who are appointed. First, if skilled individuals shy away from politics because of higher opportunities in the private sector, an increase in politicians' pay may change...

In their role as agenda setters and implementers of political decisions, bureaucrats potentially have the power to influence decisions in their own favor. It is however difficult to empirically test whether bureaucrats actually are involved in such actions. In this paper we suggest and apply a...

This paper quantifies the impact of public employment on local labor markets in the long-run. We adopt two quantitative approaches and apply them to the case of Spanish cities. In the first, we develop a 3-sector (public, tradable and non-tradable) search and matching model embedded within a...

This article tests the premise of limited federal court involvement in municipal bankruptcy cases against the real world of Detroit's restructuring. The study is based on listening to digital audio recordings of court hearings and status conferences throughout the case in nearly real time,...

In all modern bureaucracies, politicians retain some discretion in public employment decisions, which may lead to frictions in the selection process if political connections substitute for individual competence. Relying on detailed matched employer-employee data on the universe of public...

In Pennsylvania local property taxes are collected by elected officials, known as tax collectors, whose compensation varies widely in both structure and level across municipalities. This paper analyses the existence of a pay-performance relationship for these officials. Using data on the...

Women are underrepresented in public sector leadership, including the field of city management. There are several explanations for what might prevent women from achieving gender parity in city management. We examine one such explanation - a “glass cliff” phenomenon whereby councils are more...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro analizza i cambiamenti nel personale degli enti territoriali del Mezzogiorno nell’ultimo decennio in confronto al Centro Nord. La stringente normativa in materia di contenimento dei costi del personale e di limitazioni al turnover ha causato una forte contrazione...

In their role as agenda setters and implementers of political decisions, bureaucrats potentially have the power to influence decisions in their own favor. It is however difficult to empirically test whether bureaucrats actually are involved in such actions. In this paper we suggest and apply a...

This article discusses the Brazilian civil service evolution and patterns of change in each level and branch of government, from 1986 to 2017. Our analysis covers the total personnel, schooling, and distribution by sex, mean and median wages as well as the total government spending on active...