Public economics

Epistemology

Philosophy

Pathology

Business

Labour economics

Economics

Political science

Management

Turnover

Government (linguistics)

Local government

Quality (philosophy)

Public service

Public administration

Linguistics

Bureaucracy

Regression discontinuity design

Medicine

Politics

American Economic Review

We study how political turnover in mayoral elections in Brazil affects public service provision by local governments. Exploiting a regression discontinuity design for close elections, we find that municipalities with a new party in office experience upheavals in the municipal bureaucracy: new personnel are appointed across multiple service sectors, and at both managerial and non-managerial levels. In education, the increase in the replacement rate of personnel in schools controlled by the municipal government is accompanied by test scores that are 0.05–0.08 standard deviations lower. In contrast, turnover of the mayor’s party does not impact local (non-municipal) schools. These findings suggest that political turnover can adversely affect the quality of public services when the bureaucracy is not shielded from the political process. (JEL D72, D73, H75, H76, J45, O17)

Political Turnover, Bureaucratic Turnover, and the Quality of Public Services