Political Leaders' Socioeconomic Background and Public Budget Deficits: Evidence from <scp>OECD</scp> Countries

Hayo, Bernd; Neumeier, Florian

doi:10.1111/ecpo.12071

Cited by 38 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…And while the partisanship of the political leadership has received much attention, the background of the political leadership has not been featured in these empirical studies as a potential influencing factor for policy responses. This is notable since the background of political leaders has been found to be a significant factor for, for instance, the level of a country's budget deficit (Hayo and Neumeier, ), the willingness to adopt reforms, specifically liberalization (Dreher et al ., ), and its preferences with regard to monetary policy (Göhlmann and Vaubel, ). Investigating whether the background of the political leadership makes reform more or less likely in times of crisis might open up a promising area of research.…”

Section: Methodological Operationalization Of the Crisis Hypothesis –mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Crises Induce Reform? A Critical Review of Conception, Methodology and Empirical Evidence of the ‘Crisis Hypothesis’

Mahmalat

Curran

2017

Journal of Economic Surveys

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The notion that economic crises induce the adoption of reform ranks among the most widely accepted concepts in the political economics literature. However, the underlying mechanism of the so-called 'crisis hypothesis' has yet to be fully understood. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the relevant empirical evidence to date, and scrutinizes the operationalization of the hypothesis' key concepts: crisis, reform and the political mediation of reform during crises. We argue that the social perception of both crises and the subsequent cost of reform requires consideration of how these concepts are operationalized. As a product of the broader economic and institutional environment, social perceptions largely determine the manner in which the political mediation of reform during crises works. Present-day methodological approaches fail to adequately reflect social perceptions and consequently compromise the determination of what constitutes both crisis and the cost of reform in the context of the crisis hypothesis. Most notably, the identification of crises by fixed thresholds constructed around macroeconomic variables impedes the interpretation of the hypothesis' underlying mechanism. A fuller treatment of social perception within the operationalization of the hypothesis' key concepts can enhance our understanding of how economic crises influence political dynamics in bringing about reform. time, the impetus for deep, structural reforms of the financial system has faltered ' (Roubini and Mihm, 2011, p. 183).Rather than characterizing the repercussions of the 2008 crisis as not having been 'severe enough' to trigger reform, this statement indicates that the impetus for reform might depend more on a government's (in)ability to manage the immediate short-term consequences of a crisis. Further, it suggests that the determinants which facilitate the initial introduction and the eventual implementation of a reform agenda are not the same. This paper argues that the way the crisis hypothesis commonly operationalizes its key concepts -namely, crisis, reform and the political mediation surrounding the latter -makes it difficult to take such distinctions into account for empirical testing. Empirical modelling then risks conflating the distinct causal connections between these three key concepts, which in turn undermines conclusive interpretation of results.Among prominent theories of the political economy of reform, the correlation between crisis and reform has received great attention but has yet to be fully understood (see Brooks and Kurtz, 2007). The hypothesis has been repeatedly criticized for failing to adequately reflect the complexity of the mechanism that links crisis and reform (for example, Williamson, 1994;Corrales, 1998;Edwards and Steiner, 2000;Campos et al., 2010). In response to such critiques, empirical models testing the crisisreform link have become increasingly sophisticated, leading to the growing recognition that '[i]t is the type of crisis, and not just the existence of one, that is most crucial...

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Section: Methodological Operationalization Of the Crisis Hypothesis –mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Crises Induce Reform? A Critical Review of Conception, Methodology and Empirical Evidence of the ‘Crisis Hypothesis’

Mahmalat

Curran

2017

Journal of Economic Surveys

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“…Similarly, Congleton and Zhang (2013) finds that US presidents with a higher human capital have better economic performance. Hayo and Neumeier (2016) uncover a relationship between leaders' socio-economic status and the debt-to-GDP ratio in OECD countries.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 96%

Who are the ‘ghost’ MPs? Evidence from the French parliament

Gavoille

2018

European Journal of Political Economy

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This paper studies the characteristics of the ghost deputies of the French National Assembly, i.e. deputies who do not have any official recorded activity over a whole year. Using a rich dataset providing various information about all deputies from 1959 to 2012, the results indicate that the typical ghost deputy is an old man with a low level of schooling, member of a large party which does not support the government and who is elected in jurisdiction with a low level of political competition. However, personal characteristics are less and less correlated with performance over the years. Finally, ghost deputies face more difficulties to achieve reelection, but are penalized only at the first round, voters exclusively considering national factors at the second round.

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“…Consequently, the female politicians in political bodies are relevant for the women's substantive representation (Phillips, 1998). While the Weberian theory devises a genderless manager, within sociological and psychological research, Hayo and Neumeier (2016) argue that specific aspects of leaders’ socioeconomic backgrounds, including gender, could affect the political decisions. In the real world, men and women bring different backgrounds and experiences in management of public institutions (Opstrup & Villadsen, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Huang and Kisgen (2013) found that female leaders are more cautious when making financial decisions and that organizations with female leaders were less likely to issue debt. In the fiscal field, however, Hayo and Neumeier (2016) analyzed the relationship between the gender of leaders and government primary deficits in a sample of 21 OECD countries, and did not find any differences between male and female leaders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female politicians in municipal councils and fiscal performance

Cabaleiro-Casal

Buch-Gómez

2020

Economics & Politics

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Empirical research has tried to explain the effect of female politicians on various outcomes of political institutions. Few studies have focused on how the gender of politicians may affect institutional fiscal performance. Our research shows that both a female mayor, although with limited effect, and a greater share of female councillors worsen the fiscal performance of Spanish municipalities, which contrasts with the hypotheses raised, which were based on the mainstream of theoretical literature. Furthermore, right‐wing female councillors significantly increase the current budgetary imbalances, and female mayors with the same ideology seem to reduce the level of debt per capita.

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Political Leaders' Socioeconomic Background and Public Budget Deficits: Evidence from OECD Countries

Cited by 38 publications

References 97 publications

Do Crises Induce Reform? A Critical Review of Conception, Methodology and Empirical Evidence of the ‘Crisis Hypothesis’

Do Crises Induce Reform? A Critical Review of Conception, Methodology and Empirical Evidence of the ‘Crisis Hypothesis’

Who are the ‘ghost’ MPs? Evidence from the French parliament

Female politicians in municipal councils and fiscal performance

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