Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments June 18, 2023 erstellt
Description:
I study the consequences for governance of efforts to curb voter-buying. I explore the effects of Brazil’s 2007 voter re-registration reform. Exploiting a discontinuity in the targeting of municipalities assigned to the reform, I examine the response for mayoral elections, public expenditures and socioeconomic outcomes to the imposition of exogenous barriers to voter-buying. The reform led to an increase in political competition, a rise in healthcare and school expenditures – programmatic public goods salient to poor voters – and an improvement in health and school infrastructure outcomes. The impacts are larger in small municipalities, consistent with voters being more pivotal in less populous ones