Replication Data for: Social Democratic Representation and Welfare Spending: A Quantitative Case Study

The welfare state literature argues that Social Democratic party representation is of
key importance for welfare state outcomes. However, few papers are able to separate
the influence of parties from voter preferences, which implies that the partisan effects
will be overstated. I study a natural experiment to identify a partisan effect. In 1995,
the Labour Party (Ap) in the Norwegian municipality of Flå filed their candidate
list too late and could not participate in the local election. Ap were the largest party
in Flå in the entire post-World War period, but have not regained this position. I
use the synthetic control method to study the effects on welfare spending priorities.
I find small and insignificant partisan effects.