Direct Election of District Councillors Reduces Unemployment More Effectively

This is the result of a recent study by the ifo Institute published in the journal International Tax and Public Finance. “We attribute the favorable situation for the long-term unemployed to better organization of the job centers, which are run jointly by districts and the German Federal Employment Agency,” say study authors Stefanie Gaebler and Felix Roesel. “You see the world quite differently if you’ve been elected by 25,000 citizens instead of 25 members of the district parliament. Directly elected councillors have a closer connection to citizens, which appears to give them additional courage to push for reforms.”

However, the authors couldn’t ascertain any such influence on districts’ general economic situation or on the effectiveness of administration beyond the job centers. In their study, the ifo researchers made use of the fact that, uniquely among German Länder, Brandenburg holds direct elections for its mayors and district councillors. To win, a candidate needs to win a certain minimum number of the votes of all eligible voters. If voter turnout is too low, the direct election is declared invalid and the district parliament decides. This “natural experiment” gives rise to councillors appointed using two different mechanisms. The researchers examined the consequences of this for long-term unemployment, correcting for all other influences.

In the current Bundestag, the proportion of directly elected representatives has fallen below 50 percent as a result of the high number of overhang and equalization seats it took to ensure a correct distribution among parties in accordance with voters’ second votes. “One way to interpret the results of our study is to say that this might possibly have a negative impact on the willingness of parliaments to pursue reform,” Roesel says.

All Articles in this Issue:

• Direkt gewählte Politiker straffen die Verwaltung
• Strukturierte Kooperation könnte die Innovationsaktivität kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen in Sachsen nachhaltig verbessern
• Deutschlandprognose 2019/2020: Konjunktur ohne Schwung
• ifo Konjunkturprognose Ostdeutschland und Sachsen Sommer 2019: Binnenkonjunktur stützt ostdeutsche Wirtschaft
• Angebot an Kita-Plätzen in Dresden: Nicht die Anzahl, sondern deren Verteilung ist das Problem
• Vierteljährliche VGR für Sachsen: Ergebnisse für das erste Quartal 2019ifo Konjunkturumfragen Ostdeutschland und Sachsen