Essays on local political economy
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Vancouver School of Economics
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Ricca, Federico
issued: 2025-04-25T14:56:07Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Chapter 2 investigates how the racial and ethnic demographic composition of U.S. municipalities is priced in the municipal bonds market. Using high-frequency data on municipal bonds issued between 2004 and 2019, I find that cities with higher non-White population shares face higher borrowing costs. This diversity premium holds controlling for maturity structure, credit ratings, income, population trends, and city finances. Causal estimates are obtained using shift-share instruments for Black and Latino population shares. The findings are consistent with discrimination in the primary market for municipal bonds, independent of credit ratings or underwriter influence. Chapter 3 examines the underrepresentation of minority voters in U.S. city councils. Disproportionality in the representation of Minority groups is widespread, but stronger when racial or ethnic minorities are electorally pivotal, a phenomenon we define strategic underrepresentation. For the period 1981-2020, levels of strategic underrepresentation of African American, Asian, and Latino voters in U.S. city politics are substantial and tied to the strategic choice of institutional features like electoral rules, council size, and form of government. We provide causal evidence of the effects of these practices using the U.S. Supreme Court's narrow decision of Shelby County v. Holder (2013). The ruling invalidated Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which had required preclearance for electoral changes in a specific subset of U.S. jurisdictions, enabling systematic disenfranchisement. Chapter 4 explores voter registration as a potential mechanism behind the underregistration results. We use proprietary data on the universe of registered voters to show evidence of underregistration—the gap between the population share of Minority voters and their share of registered voters—in U.S. cities. This pattern closely matches that of underrepresentation of minorities in city-councils, suggesting that underregistrati…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/90794
note: Essays on Local Political EconomybyFederico RiccaM.Sc., Bocconi University, 2018B.Sc., Bocconi University, 2015A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THEREQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES(Economics)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Vancouver)April 2025© Federico Ricca, 2025The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Facultyof Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled:Essays on Local Political Economysubmitted by Federico Ricca in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy in Economics.Examining Committee:Kevin Milligan, Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, UBCCo-SupervisorTerry Moon, Assistant Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberClaudio Ferraz, Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, UBCUniversity ExaminerChristopher Kam, Professor, Department of Political Science, UBCUniversity ExaminerAdditional Supervisory Committee Members:Francesco Trebbi, Professor, Haas School of Business, UC BerkeleyCo-SupervisorMatilde Bombardini, Professor, Haas School of Business, UC BerkeleySupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractChapter 2 investigates how the racial and ethnic demographic composition of U.S.municipalities is priced in the municipal bonds market. Using high-frequency dataon municipal bonds issued between 2004 and 2019, I find that cities with highernon-White population shares face higher borrowing costs. This diversity premiumholds controlling for maturity structure, credit ratings, income, population trends, andcity finances. Causal estimates are obtained using shift-share instruments for Blackand Latino population shares. The findings are consistent with discrimination in theprimary market for municipal bonds, independent of credit ratings or underwriterinfluence.Chapter 3 examines the underrepresentation of minority voters in U.S. city coun-cils. Disproportional…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448586
language: eng
degree discipline: Economics
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Milligan, Kevin
contributor: Trebbi, Francesco
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90794