Seminar by Giovanni Facchini

SALA SEMINARI – 1° PIANO, PALAZZO LEVI CASES, VIA DEL SANTO 33 - ORE 12.30

28.05.2019

Seminar by Giovanni Facchini, University of Nottingham

Title: "Are political and economic integration intertwined?" joint with Bernt Bratsberg, Tommaso Frattini and Anna Rosso.

Abstract: Economic incentives play a key role in the decision to run for office, but little is known about their impact on the self-selection of immigrants into candidacy. We study this question by developing a simple forward looking Roy model, in which an individual decides whether to become a candidate by trading off  labor market earnings with the expected gains from a political career. As the return to labor market experience - representing the opportunity cost of a political career - increases, ceteris paribus the likelihood to run for office declines. We empirically assess this key insight using a unique administrative dataset for Norway, a country where all foreign born can take part in local elections and be elected to local office upon fulfillment of a three-year residency requirement. Our results provide strong support for our theoretical model and indicate that immigrants' political and economic integration are closely intertwined.