Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0

Author-Name: Diogo Britto
Author-X-Name-First: Diogo
Author-X-Name-Last: Britto
Author-Email: diogo.britto@unicatt.it
Author-Workplace-Name: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Author-Workplace-Name: Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Author-Name: Stefano Fiorin
Author-X-Name-First: Stefano
Author-X-Name-Last: Fiorin


Title: Corruption and Legislature Size: Evidence from Brazil.


Abstract: This paper studies the role of council size on government corruption
in Brazil. We leverage on the discontinuous relationship between the
population size of municipalities and council size dictated by the law to
implement a regression discontinuity design. We document a substantial
positive causal effect of the number of city councilors on the incidence of
corruption detected during federal audits. Results also show that hav-
ing an extra councilor does not affect the size of the public budget, but
in
uences its composition. It increases expenditures related to public
housing and recreation, which we interpret as items related to clientelis-
tic policies. Finally, we find a negative relationship between council size
and its productivity: namely, the numbers of legislative bills proposed
by councilor and approved are both lower in municipalities with larger
councils.
Length: 30
Creation-Date: 2016-12
File-URL: http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/economia-finanza-def054.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2016
Number: def054
Classification-JEL: D72, D73, H72. 
Keywords: Corruption, Council Size, Regression Discontinuity.
Handle: RePEc:ctc:serie1:def054