Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39019 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3126
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
A growing theoretical literature on the effect of politicians' salaries on the average level of skills of political candidates yields ambiguous predictions. In this paper, we estimate the effect of pay for politicians on the level of education of parliamentary candidates. We take advantage of an exceptional reform where the salaries of Finnish MPs were increased by 35 % in the year 2000, intended to make the pay for parliamentarians more competitive. A difference-in-differences analysis, using candidates in municipal elections as a control group, suggests that the higher salary increased the fraction of candidates with higher education among female candidates, while we find no significant effect for male candidates.
Subjects: 
pay for politicians
candidate selection
gender differences in politics
JEL: 
D72
J30
J45
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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