Guglielmo Barone, dSEA University of Padova 

Abstract:

Economic roots of populism in Western countries are quite well understood but much less is known about policy implications. We compare Italian municipalities equally hit by the economic shocks leading to populism but, at the same time, very differently exposed to the generosity of the EU structural funds, because of their locations on the two opposite sides of the geographical borderthat determines eligibility. Estimates resulting from a spatial regression discontinuity design show that in 2013 general elections larger EU financing caused a drop in populism of about 5% of the mean of the dependent variable.