The distribution of political power and the provision of human-capital promoting public goods: Historical evidence from German cities.

• Applicants: Dr. Lena Gerling; Dr. Tommy Krieger
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History ; Economic Policy, Applied Economics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460915627

Various political economy theories imply that the extent to which public education and health facilities are underprovided in developing countries depends on how the political power is distributed between the different groups of a society. To test these theories, we will apply state-of-the-art microeconometric methods to hand-collected city-level data from late-19th/ early-20th century Germany. For hundreds of German cities, our data set will include information that characterizes the local electoral system, the distribution of the local political power, the provision of human-capital promoting public goods, and the distribution of wealth. At the end, our project will show how institutional and economic factors determine the distribution of political power and how elite structure affects public good provision. In addition, we will create a comprehensive panel data set that opens the floor for extensive research on the political and socioeconomic developments of German cities between the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871 and the seizure of power by the Nazi Party in 1933.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants