Essays in empirical political economics

• Ano de defesa: 2015
• Autor(a) principal: Meloni, Luís Eduardo Negrão
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Captura politica; Desigualdade de renda; Ditadura militar; Economia política; Filiação partidária; Income inequality; Instituições; Institutions; Military dictatorship; Party affiliation; Political capture; Political economy
• Link de acesso: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12138/tde-19022016-120257/

This thesis is a collection of three independent essays in empirical political economics. The first chapter investigates if the presence of appointed mayors in a subset of municipalities during the Brazilian dictatorship led to elite capture. This is done comparing measures of inequality after redemocratization between municipalities that had appointed mayors with municipalities where mayors were elected directly. The main results are consistent with the hypothesis of elite capture and indicate income inequality increased more in municipalities that had mayors appointed by the regime. The second chapter investigates the extent to which media vehicles are prone to political capture in the context of the Brazilian dictatorship. This is done by investigating the effects of Rede Globo, the main Brazilian television station, on electoral outcomes of mayoral elections during the Brazilian dictatorship, mainly on the share of votes obtained by ARENA, the ruling party during the dictatorship. The main effects documented in this chapter show that during the first years of the military dictatorship, Globo has a positive effect on ARENA\'s vote-share. In the latter years, however, the effect becomes negative and, on average, overlaps the positive result. It is provided evidence that this break in the effect of Globo is associated with a change in the company\'s position towards the regime and in the content of the shows broadcast by Globo. The third chapter investigates if teachers with strong partisan stances are capable of influencing electoral outcomes through shaping their students\' voting behavior. This is done by exploiting unique datasets on party-affiliated voters, on public high school teachers and on election results and voter characteristics in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The main findings of this chapter are suggestive of a positive and significant effect of the presence of affiliated teachers on the electoral performance of the corresponding party, especially in elections based on plurality voting systems.