Run For Your Life? The Effect of Close Elections on the Life Expectancy of Politicians

Arbeitspapier

We use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of election to political office on natural lifespan. In contrast to previous findings of shortened lifespan among US presidents and other heads of state, we find that US governors and other political office holders live over one year longer than losers of close elections. The positive effects of election appear in the mid-1800s, and grow notably larger when we restrict the sample to later years. We also analyze heterogeneity in exposure to stress, the proposed mechanism in the previous literature. We find no evidence of a role for stress in explaining differences in life expectancy. Those who win by large margins have shorter life expectancy than either close winners or losers, a fact which may explain previous findings.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 10779

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: General ; Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation ; Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination
• Subject: mortality ; stress ; regression discontinuity

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Borgschulte, Mark ; Vogler, Jacob
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/170763
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET