Jobs for Votes: Micro-Evidence From Albania

Abstract

We show that supporting the political party in power improves individuals' labour market outcomes in pre-election periods. Relying on a unique dataset recording the political preferences of a large and random sample of voters in Albania, we compare changes in labour outcomes for incumbent supporters before a parliamentary election with changes in corresponding outcomes for plausibly similar opposition supporters. We find positive and significant effects of the election campaign on the employment and earnings of individuals with a preference for the incumbent. Additional results suggest that this effect is driven by an exchange in which party supporters get jobs for mobilising additional votes. First, the estimated labour market premium is concentrated among incumbent supporters with the lowest cost of vote-buying. Second, patronage jobs are supplied primarily by the public sector and include low-ranking jobs for which ideological alignment is irrelevant. Third, the provision of jobs to incumbent supporters is correlated with gains in the incumbent's vote share at the ballot box. These findings provide novel evidence indicating that politicians use job patronage to motivate "grassroots" supporters to engage in vote-buying efforts before elections.

Keywords: Job patronage, elections, vote-buying

JEL Classification: D72, D73, H83, J45, M59