American Economic Review Vol. 107 No. 10 2017

Politician Family Networks and Electoral Outcomes: Evidence from the Philippines

Cesi Cruz¹; Julien Labonne²; Pablo Querubín³

¹ Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, 1866 Main Mall–C425, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada (email: ) · ² Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, 120 Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK (email: ) · ³ Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University, 19 W. 4th Street, New York, NY 10012 (email: )

Abstract

We demonstrate the importance of politician social networks for electoral outcomes. Using large-scale data on family networks from over 20 million individuals in 15,000 villages in the Philippines, we show that candidates for public office are disproportionately drawn from more central families and family network centrality contributes to higher vote shares during the elections. Consistent with our theory of political intermediation, we present evidence that family network centrality facilitates relationships of political exchange. Moreover, we show that family networks exercise an effect independent of wealth, historical elite status, or previous electoral success.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20150343

Volume

107

Issue

10

Pages

3006-3037

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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