attractive politicians, but little is known about whether beauty also shapes the behavior of members of parliament (MPs) once in …The beauty premium in politics shows that attractive politicians are more likely to get elected to office than less … more likely to be absent from parliament and less active in labor-intensive background work than others. Consistent with …

. Furthermore, politicians elected in contestable districts make fewer absences in parliament; this is shown to be driven more by a …-ideological voters, who care about national and local policies, strongly prefer experts. We show that parties compete on good politicians … by allocating them to the most contestable districts. Empirical evidence on Italian members of parliament confirms this …

politicians' quality is positively affected by their wage and apply a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design relying on the fact … that in Italy the wage of the mayor increases non-monotonically at different thresholds. Results show that an exogenous …

. Furthermore, politicians elected in contestable districts make fewer absences in parliament; this is shown to be driven more by a …-ideological voters, who care about national and local policies, strongly prefer experts. We show that parties compete on good politicians … by allocating them to the most contestable districts. Empirical evidence on Italian members of parliament confirms this …