Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
In metropolitan areas the Brazilian government provides drugs against hypertension and diabetes for free, and against other diseases 90 percent below market price. A city’s eligibility for these in-kind transfers changes exogenously at given city population thresholds. We compare vote shares of mayors around these thresholds. Regression discontinuity estimates suggest that the program increases incumbent mayors’ vote shares between 11 and 17 percentage points. This is larger than the electoral return of cash transfer programs reported by the existing literature, lending support to theories that in-kind transfers get more voter support despite being less cost-effective.