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SUMMARY:Candidate Entry into Local Government - Niccolò Meriggi (Universi
 ty of Oxford)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260525T133000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260525T144500
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/d15589f0-68ef-4551-9b87-0969f4d474aa/
DESCRIPTION:The competence of elected officials affects state performance 
 and economic growth\, yet it is often difficult to find high human capital
 \, representative citizens willing to put themselves forward as political 
 candidates. We analyze an intervention designed to address this challenge 
 that combines structured community nominations\, private screening of tech
 nocratic skills\, and information provision to political parties in advanc
 e of local elections in Sierra Leone.  Estimates show that this approach s
 uccessfully identifies individuals who are substantially higher quality an
 d enjoy broader local support than incumbents and status quo candidates.  
 While new to elected politics\, these individuals are still elite\, mostly
  drawn from traditional chiefly families.  One quarter of top nominees for
 mally enter politics by filing candidate applications\, positively self-se
 lected on quality and boosted by an encouragement nudge.  Their entry marg
 inally improves the maximum quality observed in the potential candidate po
 ol and among those selected onto the parties’ lists.  These results prov
 ide proof of concept that there are better people out there willing to run
 .  We find null results on the quality of those who win seats\, largely dr
 iven by party leaders favoring rerunning incumbents\, gatekeeping that pre
 vents new entrants from getting elected.\nSpeakers:\nNiccolò Meriggi (Uni
 versity of Oxford)
LOCATION:Manor Road Building (Skills Lab)\, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/d15589f0-68ef-4551-9b87-0969f4d474aa/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Candidate Entry into Local Government - Niccolò Meriggi 
 (University of Oxford)
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