Politicians have more high-income neighbours

A new study shows that elected municipal politicians live in areas where the neighbours have higher incomes than what is the case for the general population. The narrower the area around each individual is defined, the stronger this pattern becomes. Similar patterns exist for the neighbours’ level of education and their country of birth. Politicians from the traditional centre-right bloc have more high-income individuals, highly educated individuals, and individuals born within the OECD (including Sweden) among their closest neighbours than what politicians in the left bloc have.

The study also examines whether political decisions are influenced by where politicians live. During the election periods examined, fewer building permits were approved for multi-family houses and fewer proposals for school closures were made in neighbourhoods, where more politicians from parties in the governing majority lived. The conclusion is that politicians who have the possibility to affect the political decisions avoid making bad decisions for their own residential area according to the "not in my backyard” principle.