View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Universidade do Minho: RepositoriUM The Political Economy of Intergovernmental Grants: Evidence from a Maturing Democracy Linda Gonçalves Veiga Núcleo de Investigação em Políticas Económicas (NIPE) Universidade do Minho P-4710-057 Braga, Portugal Tel: +351-253604568 Fax: +351-253676375 E-mail:
[email protected] and Maria Manuel Pinho Faculdade de Economia Universidade do Porto P-4200-464 Porto, Portugal Tel: +351-225571100 Fax: +351-225505050 E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: We evaluate the impact of political forces in the allocation of intergovernmental grants in Portugal, as it matured from a young to an established democracy. Using a large and unexplored dataset we show that political variables condition the granting system, and that their importance changed over time. While tactical manipulation in the distribution of grants among municipalities seems to exist only in the early years of democracy, opportunistic effects are stronger in the latter years. We argue that the latter effect is due to a change in the political environment and to the electorate’s lack of information on intergovernmental grants. JEL classification: H77, H59, D72 Keywords: grants, intergovernmental relations, political economy, Portugal 1. Introduction Working with a large cross-section of countries, Brender and Drazen (2005) argued that empirical evidence of a political budget cycle exists but that the result is driven by a group of “new democracies”, which included Portugal. Since democracy was re-established in Portugal in 1974, the country has evolved from a “new” to an “established” democracy, which makes it an appropriate laboratory for further investigation of Brender and Drazen’s findings.