Partisan allocation of Eu funds: a regression discontinuity approach

Abstract

This paper examines the potential effect of partisan alignment between localauthorities and central government on the allocation of EU funds to Portuguesemunicipalities. We use a dataset containing information on intergovernmentaltransfers received by all 308 municipalities during a period of 15 years, covering fourlocal elections. The quasi-experimental method used is the regression discontinuitydesign, as municipalities hosting close elections will be the baseline for this analysis.Results show a positive statistically significant impact of partisan alignment on theamount of EU funds allocated to each municipality, supported by several robustnesschecks.