TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alesina,Alberto
AU  - Baqir,Reza
AU  - Easterly,William
TI  - Redistributive Public Employment
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6746
PY  - 1998
Y2  - October 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6746
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6746.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alberto F. Alesina
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 210
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-8388
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: aalesina@harvard.edu

William Easterly
New York University
Department of Economics
19 W. 4th Street, 6th floor
New York NY 10012
Tel: 212/992-8684
Fax: 212/995-4186
E-Mail: william.easterly@nyu.edu
AB  - Politicians may use  disguised' redistributive policies in order to circumvent opposition to explicit tax-transfer schemes. First, we present a theoretical model that formalizes this hypothesis; then we provide evidence that in US cities, politicians use public employment as such a redistributive device.  We find that city employment is significantly higher in cities where income inequality and ethnic fragmentation are higher.
ER  -