Eventi del
13 2019 12:30
Aula Seminari 5.e4.sr04 - Via Roentgen 1
Development Labor Political Economy - DLPE
Now You See Me: The Career Returns to Visibility for British Politicians
Matt Lowe (Briq Institute on Behavior and Inequality)
Among national politicians, power is concentrated in a small subset of senior politicians. This paper uses a natural experiment in UK Parliament to test whether visibility increases the probability of reaching the upper echelons of politics. Each week, Members of Parliament (MPs) may enter a lottery to get the chance to ask the Prime Minister a question in front of a packed House of Commons chamber. Using archival data for the period 1986 to 2011 I document three main findings: (i) asking a single question increases the probability of attaining a position in government or opposition by 7% (1.4 p.p.), with this effect persisting for roughly 7 years; (ii) these returns are significantly higher for the young and those who have held some position before; and (iii) male and inexperienced MPs are more likely to submit questions. These results provide empirical justification for career-concerns-led visibility-seeking in politics.