Financial Gains from Legislative Office: Evidence from Brazilian Municipal Councilors

Abstract

I study how much Brazilian local legislators benefit financially from holding public office. Employing a Regression Discontinuity strategy, I find that the annual asset growth of elected candidates is 10.2 percentage points higher than that of the unelected. The higher relative asset growth of elected politicians is found to be positively associated with public office wages, but not with rent-seeking. These results suggest the existence of large legal financial benefits from legislative office with unclear implications to social welfare.