The Microeconometrics Seminar: Every Tuesday at 12:15 pm.
Time: 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm
Date: 25 th of June 2019
Place: Room 3001
Gregory VERDUGO (Université d’Evry Val d’Essonne) – “The Political Economy of Public Housing”

Abstract: In many European and Asian countries, public housing accounts for a large share of housing and its allocation depends on municipalities. Using French data, we test whether mayors use public housing to change the composition of their municipality and attract more favorable voters. We use a regression discontinuity design based on close elections to identify the consequences of electing of a left- instead of a right-wing mayor. The results indicate that the election of a left-wing mayor is followed by an increase in the share of immigrants in public housing and a decline in the share of low-skilled natives in the population. These e ects are driven by municipalities that are small with respect to the metro area and that have a large share of public housing. Strong e ects are observed in the short run, before the next election, but medium- and long-run e ects are twice as large. While the electoral reshaping appears to have been successful as it is associated with higher incumbency advantages for the left, we also nd evidence of an increase in the far-right votes as a result.

Work joint with Benoît Schmutz.
Organizers:

Laurent DAVEZIES (Laboratoire de Microéconométrie-CREST)
Benoît SCHMUTZ (Laboratoire de Microéconométrie-CREST)
Arne UHLENDORFF (Laboratoire de Microéconométrie-CREST)
Sponsors:
CREST