Length of candidate lists and political careers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Brazil

Abstract

This paper provides causal estimates of the effects of increases in the size of candidate lists on the political careers of newcomers to the political arena. We explore an exogenous discontinuity in district magnitude that allows parties to expand their candidate lists in the Brazilian open-list local elections and find that the additional candidacies are allocated to weaker candidates, mainly newcomers, who end up occupying a significant share of the additional seats. We also find that the electoral experience provided by the additional candidacies increases the number of newcomers elected in their second attempt.