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Title: Do Black Politicians Matter?

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: This paper exploits the history of Reconstruction after the American Civil War to estimate the causal effect of politician race on public finance, using the number of free blacks in the antebellum era (1860) as an instrumental variable (IV) for black political leaders during Reconstruction. Free blacks were particularly overrepresented as officeholders, but their within-state distribution before the Civil War was unrelated to local preferences for redistribution, electoral outcomes, the tenure of black elected officials, political competition, or voter education campaigns. IV estimates show that an additional black official increased per capita county tax revenue by $0.20, more than an hour’s wage at the time. Consistent with the stated policy goals of black officials, I find positive effects of black politicians on land tenancy and show that exposure to black politicians increased black literacy by 6% and decreased the black-white literacy gap by more than 7%. The effects were not persistent, however, disappearing entirely once black politicians were removed from office at Reconstruction’s end. These results suggest that politician race has large effects on public finance and individual outcomes over and above electoral preferences.

Url: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/econ/sempapers/Logan.pdf

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Authors: Logan, Trevon, D

Publisher: The Ohio State University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Other, Race and Ethnicity

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