Numerous studies show that female politicians on the whole are associated with less corruption than male ones. But Ugo Troiano and I were able to demonstrate the phenomenon with convincing evidence in a published study comparing male and female mayors in Brazil. We found that female mayors were not only less likely to engage in administrative irregularities and patronage, like … [Read more...] about Are Female Politicians More Honest than Male Politicians?
Fernanda Brollo
Fernanda Brollo is a visiting scholar in the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Warwick. She has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard University (2012) and an assistant professor at the University of Alicante. Her research focuses on political economy and development and aims to understand the drivers of government failure, how to reduce it and improve local governance. She has published papers in top academic journals, including the American Economic Review, American Political Science Review and Journal of Development Economics. Fernanda obtained her PhD. in Economics from Bocconi University in 2010.
Does Political Patronage Necessarily Lead to Bad Hiring?
Patronage is among the least loved of political practices, often synonymous with malfeasance and incompetence. Civic and development organizations rail against it. Numerous studies show that merit-based career civil services, as opposed to discretionary ones, are associated with higher economic growth, lower corruption, and better bureaucratic performance. But patronage, the … [Read more...] about Does Political Patronage Necessarily Lead to Bad Hiring?
Protecting Conditional Cash Transfers
Conditional cash transfers are powerful tools of social progress in Latin America and the Caribbean. They have reduced short-term poverty for tens of millions of people by providing a monthly stipend and have helped break the intergenerational transmission of poverty by linking financial assistance to behaviors that enhance human capital, like school attendance and health … [Read more...] about Protecting Conditional Cash Transfers