Local differences in wealth and income often are very stark and easily visible. Indeed, their prevalence is hardly a secret. Nearly everybody can instantly name the “good” and “bad” neighborhoods of the place they live in. Yet there is very little research on political inequality on the local level, especially outside the United States.

In his PhD project, Nils aims to close this research gap by analyzing public investments of German municipalities. The overall goal of the project is to better our understanding of local distributive politics, both in terms of allocative results and the (political) process to get there. The results will contribute to answer questions like: Who do local governments spend their money on? Do certain socioeconomic groups benefit disproportionately? How does the decision-making process go?

For this, Nils compiles a dataset spanning 23 cities and 17 years. It will contain data on investment spending, welfare quotas, rent prices, population density and distribution, and election results.