Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper studies the extent to which political determinants play a role in the investment decisions for water and sanitation (WS) services. We focus on the political alignment between local and state officials using the outcomes of close mayoral elections in Brazil. We find that mayors of municipalities with self-run WS companies aligned with the state governor significantly decreased investment in their WS systems compared to unaligned mayors, providing evidence that politics plays a role in the running of public utilities.