Political Parties Do Matter in U.S. Cities ... For Their Unfunded Pensions / Christian Dippel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dippel, Christian.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25601.

NBER working paper series no. w25601

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

This paper studies the biggest fiscal challenge currently facing many U.S. cities, namely public-sector pension obligations. Employing a regression discontinuity design (RDD), it tests whether the mayor's party impacts a city's public-sector pensions. Pension benefits are shown to grow faster under Democratic-party mayors, while contribution payments simultaneously fall behind. Previous research showed that parties do not matter in U.S. cities for a wide range of fiscal expenditure types, purportedly because voters impose fiscal discipline. This paper shows that parties can matter when expenditures benefit a narrow interest group and are difficult to observe for tax payers.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2019.