TY  - SER
AU  -  Jones, Daniel B.
AU  -  Twinam, Tate
AU  -  Walsh, Randall
AU  - Beach, Brian
TI  - Racial and Ethnic Representation in Local Government
SN  - 1945-7731
PB  - American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
KW  -  Non-labor Discrimination, Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration
KW  -  Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior, Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants
KW  -  Population
KW  -  Regional Labor Markets
KW  - Economics of Minorities
KW  - Neighborhood Characteristics
N2  - Does the presence of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in a legislative body differentially impact outcomes for members of those groups? We study close elections between White and non-White candidates for California city council and the corresponding impact on housing values, a summary statistic for neighborhood investment. We find electing non-White rather than White candidates generates differential home value gains in majority non-White neighborhoods. This result, which is not explained by correlations between candidate race and political affiliation or neighborhood racial composition and income, suggests that increased representation can reduce racial disparities. Our results strengthen with increased city-level segregation and council member pivotality
UR  - https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20200430
ER  -