Universität zu Köln

Rinderle, Monja (2023). Youth representation in Brazilian municipalities: Do the young make a difference in public spending? Masters thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Young people are underrepresented in political institutions worldwide which could have detrimental consequences for policy outcomes and democracies at large. This thesis investigates whether youth representation in the legislative and executive branch influences the allocation of public spending in Brazilian municipalities. To do so, I create a large panel data set covering more than 32,000 municipal governments from 2002 to 2022 and use a regression discontinuity design as well as mixed-effects models. I show that the young age of mayors and councilors has no coherent effect on the composition of municipal budgets although there are a few interesting patterns in select policy areas. My findings put into question the link between descriptive and substantive representation with regards to youth and underline that youth representation is no panacea for achieving more equitable outcomes across generations.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Rinderle, Monja monja.rinderle@gmx.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-720335
Date:	2023
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Political Science > Cologne Center for Comparative Politics
Subjects:	Social sciences Political science
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language youth representation English descriptive representation English public spending English regression discontinuity design English
Date of oral exam:	5 July 2023
Referee:	Name Academic Title Proksch, Sven-Oliver Prof. Dr. Castanho Silva, Bruno Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/72033