Young Politicians and Long-Term Policy
Authors
Dahis, Ricardo
de las Heras, Ivan
Saavedra, Santiago
Editor
Publication date
2023-02-10
Document language
eng
Publisher
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Abstract
A fundamental difficulty in policy-making is that policies often have costs today but benefits far into the future. This difficulty is particularly salient to climate change and environmental conservation policy. A critical dimension in this trade-off is the age of politicians, which impacts their life expectancy, career concerns, and what education
they received. We study this trade-off in the case of Brazilian mayors and environmental outcomes, using a regression discontinuity design for close elections.
We find that when a young politician is elected, there is a reduction in deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, without significant effects on municipal gross domestic
product. Young politicians allocate more spending to education and reducing liabilities, suggesting that the time horizon is important. Our study of mechanisms suggests
young mayors matter because they belong to a new cohort, not because of age per se.
Description
Códigos JEL
P18 - Energy; Environment, Q23 - Forestry, Q54 - Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
item.page.subjectjelspa
Keywords
Deforestation, Politicans' Age
Keywords
Groups
Cambio climático
