Business Owners and Executives as Politicians
The Effect on Public Policy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6388992 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia A Kirkland (0000-0001-6465-567X, Princeton University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1652-1668 |
| Publication date | 2021-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/715067 |
| OpenAlex | W3159554299 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 32 |
| References cited | 44 |
When business owners and executives run for elected office, they claim their experience in business leaves them uniquely equipped to govern. Does electing a business owner or executive have an effect on public policy? With original data, including race, gender, political experience, and occupational backgrounds of 3,257 mayoral candidates from 263 cities, I document a striking lack of diversity in US mayoral politics and show that business owners and executives are extraordinarily well represented in American city halls. Nearly 32% of mayors have experience as a business owner or executive, making it the most common occupation across both time and geographic region. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that business executive mayors do shape municipal fiscal policy by shifting the allocation of expenditures, investing in infrastructure while curtailing redistributive spending. Notably, my results suggest that business executive is not simply a proxy for Republican partisanship
Business · Diversity (politics · Political science · Politics · Proxy (statistics · Public relations · Regression discontinuity design · Small business · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Finance · Gender Politics and Representation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration
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Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator
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Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression-Discontinuity Designs
Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design
Polarized America
The Color of Representation
Women as Policy Makers
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Sex and the City
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On the Validity of the Regression Discontinuity Design for Estimating Electoral Effects
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Business Backgrounds and Congressional Behavior
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Political Selection
The Ideological Mapping of American Legislatures
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| Unique citing works | 32 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 32 |