Cultura importa? Efeitos de ancestralidade dos sobrenomes de prefeitos sobre a gestão municipal

Abstract

This work evaluates the evidence that cultural differences related to the ancestry of surnames have an effect on the mayor’s results in the municipality administration, focusing on the impact of cultural values inherited from past generations in countries with immigratory inflows from various origins, like in the Brazilian case. The work utilizes an identification strategy of regression discontinuity design (RDD) in close elections, allowing comparability of the results between different municipalities. The analysis includes races between two candidates in the 2008 and 2012 elections, adding up to 11022 candidates. Through the classification of the national origin of the candidates surnames, 1141 races between a candidate from Iberian origin and a candidate from non-Iberian origin were selected. Selected indicators of school infrastructure availability, access to healthcare, corruption and campaign donations were evaluated through RDD. There were not statistically significant results in the indicators related to healthcare, corruption and campaign donations. Even though some school infrastructure availability indicators showed statistical significance, those results appear to be conflicting with themselves.