Kinship ties in politics and response to extreme weather shocks
研究菲律宾地方官员间的亲属关系如何影响台风灾害应对，发现亲属关系能帮助州长从国家政府获得更多援助，并提升选民支持。
It is well-established that ties between politicians influence the distribution of public resources, particularly in policy domains where officials enjoy substantial discretion. Other policy areas, such as disaster response, have more limited scope for discretionary targeting. To what extent does political alliance influence the allocation of resources in these settings? Focusing on the case of the Philippines, I examine if kinship ties between two major local politicians- provincial governor and congressperson- influence the response to typhoon shocks. Using a close-election regression discontinuity design, I find that kin-connected governors respond better than other governors to strong typhoon shocks. I argue that the effect can be explained by both supply and demand channels. I find suggestive evidence that governors leverage their connections to congresspersons to request more assistance from the national government. Furthermore, voters reward kin-connected governors for their response to strong typhoons. These results provide a lower-bound estimate on the effects of political alliances on the allocation of fiscal resources.