Political selection in Germany

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thushyanthan Baskaran; Professorin Dr. Zohal Hessami
• Subject Area: Economic Policy, Applied Economics
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405960810

This project explores the determinants and consequences of political selection at the local level in Germany. During the second funding period, we have collected additional individual-level data for Bavaria and Hesse. With this data, we have continued our work on the papers that were mentioned in the previous application and wrote two new papers. The paper "The Gender Recontest Gap in Elections" has by now been accepted subject to minor revisions by the "European Economic Review". The paper "Competitively Elected Women as Policymakers" has received a "revise & resubmit" from the "Review of Economics and Statistics". The new papers, entitled "Can Young Politicians Influence Policy in a Gerontocracy?" and "Political Selection at the Dawn of a Global Pandemic", have been or will soon be submitted, respectively. In the third funding period, we plan to study political selection in the context of the Alternative für Deutschland's (AfD) rise in Germany. Some of the questions we will explore include: Are local politicians of the AfD true newcomers? Or are they disproportionately turncoats form other, more established parties, who see an opportunity for their own career advancement? Does having turncoats on their list help the AfD? How do politicians of the AfD, once they enter a political body, interact with those from more established parties? What consequences do these interactions have for policy choices? After focusing on apolitical characteristics of politicians in the first two funding periods (notably gender and age), we will thus focus on the link between ideology and partisan convictions and political selection in the third funding period. For this purpose, we will collect in particular individual-level data on local council elections from Saxony over the period 2009-2019. Saxony is ostensibly the German state where the AfD is most successful. In addition, local council elections in Saxony are conducted with open lists. Thus, we will be able to pinpoint the effect of individual candidates on the success of the entire party.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants