POLITICAL COLLEAGUES MATTER: THE IMPACT OF MULTIPLE OFFICE-HOLDING ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL GRANTS

This paper brings new evidence on the politics of intergovernmental grants, by focusing on multiple office-holding (cumul des mandat). I look at whether a local incumbent who has concurrently a seat at an upper layer of government gets more funds from this layer. I focus on grants counties (departements) allocate to municipalities. I find that mayors who also have a seat in the majority group of the county council get on average 28% more grants for their municipality than other municipal incumbents. Additional evidence suggest this targeting being driven by reelection concerns of county councillors.