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<p>This paper aims to analyse the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds from the perspective of the political alignment hypothesis. The authors focus on the allocation of the second and third rounds of the Governmental Fund for Local Investments (part of the COVID-19 Response Fund) in Poland. Using the logit and OLS models and the regression discontinuity design the authors show that mayors aligned with the central government were significantly more likely to receive the funds, as well as in higher per capita values, than mayors aligned with the opposition or unaligned with any party in parliament when the allocation was based on a discretionary decision. The results support the political alignment hypothesis and highlight the danger of partiality in the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds.</p>
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This paper aims to analyse the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds from the perspective of the political alignment hypothesis. The authors focus on the allocation of the second and third rounds of the Governmental Fund for Local Investments (part of the COVID-19 Response Fund) in Poland. Using the logit and OLS models and the regression discontinuity design the authors show that mayors aligned with the central government were significantly more likely to receive the funds, as well as in higher per capita values, than mayors aligned with the opposition or unaligned with any party in parliament when the allocation was based on a discretionary decision. The results support the political alignment hypothesis and highlight the danger of partiality in the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds.

Political alignment and the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds—evidence from municipalities in Poland

Department of Macroeconomics and Development Studies

Poznań University of Economics and Business

Economics and Business Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This paper aims to analyse the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds from the perspective of the political alignment hypothesis. The authors focus on the...

Political alignment and the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds—evidence from municipalities in Poland

Published Online: May 09, 2022

Page range: 50 - 71

Received: Jan 28, 2022

Accepted: Mar 28, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18559/ebr.2022.1.4

Keywords
political alignment, COVID-19 response funds, public spending

© 2022 Piotr Matuszak et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Political alignment and the allocation of the COVID-19 response funds—evidence from municipalities in Poland

Published Online: May 09, 2022

Page range: 50 - 71

Received: Jan 28, 2022

Accepted: Mar 28, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18559/ebr.2022.1.4

Keywordspolitical alignment, COVID-19 response funds, public spending

© 2022 Piotr Matuszak et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
political alignment, COVID-19 response funds, public spending