Do Politicians' Relatives Get Better Jobs? Evidence from Municipal Elections

Abstract

This paper estimates the impacts of being connected to politicians on occupational choice. Using an administrative dataset collected in 2008-2010 on 20 million individuals in the Philippines, we rely on naming conventions to assess family links to candidates in elections held in 2007 and 2010. We combine a regression discontinuity design to close elections in 2007 with an alternative approach using individuals connected to successful candidates in 2010 as control group. This allows us to net out the possible cost associated with being related to a losing candidate. We find robust evidence that relatives of current office-holders are more likely to be employed in better paying occupations (JEL D13, D72, J24, P16).