Politicians are commonly believed to gain financially from holding and/or having held office. We argue that there may often also be economic downsides to pursuing a political career and investigate whether and when politicians can (not) capitalize on their political experience. We thereby study both entry into and exit from political office and directly compare the returns to politics across government levels and types of politicians. Empirically, we build on detailed information from Norwegian administrative register data over the period 1970–2019 to study individual-level income developments before, during and after a political career at the national and local levels (covering nearly 22,000 individuals and 700,000 person-years). Using an event-study methodology, we show that politicians on average witness a significant income boost during their time in office. In sharp contrast, leaving political office is on average associated with a substantial drop in income, which generally outweighs the income gain from entry into office. These findings suggest that most politicians face a net present value loss from holding office.

中文翻译：

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后政治收入惩罚？来自政客一生收入轨迹的证据（1970-2019）

人们普遍认为，政治家可以通过担任职务和/或曾经担任过职务来获得经济利益。我们认为，追求政治生涯往往也可能带来经济上的负面影响，并调查政治家是否以及何时可以（不）利用他们的政治经验。因此，我们研究了政治职位的进入和退出，并直接比较不同政府级别和政治家类型的政治回报。根据经验，我们基于 1970-2019 年期间挪威行政登记数据的详细信息，研究国家和地方各级政治生涯之前、期间和之后的个人收入发展（涵盖近 22,000 个人和 700,000 人年） 。使用事件研究方法，我们发现政治家在任职期间平均收入显着增加。与此形成鲜明对比的是，离开政治职位平均会导致收入大幅下降，这通常超过了入职带来的收入增长。这些发现表明，大多数政客因任职而面临净现值损失。