Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/233353 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion paper No. 138
Publisher: 
Aboa Centre for Economics (ACE), Turku
Abstract: 
We study the link between geographic political representation and geographic distribution of public goods within local jurisdictions using geo-coded data on politicians, the electorate and elementary school closures. We find that poorer neighborhoods are under-represented. Inequality in geographic representation matters as the probability of school closure halves from about 20% to 10% when a candidate close to the school is randomly elected due to ties in personal vote counts. Highincome residents react to school closures by moving away from their neighborhood. Taken together, residential sorting leads to inequality in representation and public goods across neighborhoods, which further reinforces residential segregation.
Subjects: 
Geographic representation
random elections
residential segregation
school closure
JEL: 
C21
D72
H75
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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