Linking coalitions to policy output: The case of local government in Norway

The main emphasis in coalition studies has so far been on national coalitio ns-with the local level being rather overlooked-and in most studies estimat ing the impact of local politics researchers have used various indicators o f the electoral strength of parties as their main political variable. In th is analysis we investigate the genuine composition of coalitions in each an d every municipality in Norway, describing which parties serve as the major ity base for the mayor and the deputy mayor. This approach gives us the opp ortunity to investigate both the impact of the genuine political office hol ders, as well as the structural properties of coalitions, on policy output. Using a decomposition of school expenditure suggested by Falch and Rattso, we are able to ask in what ways money is spent inside the sector, in addit ion to how much money is spent. The empirical results show that coalitions can be linked to policy output; the preferred spending objects vary both ac cording to the parties forming the coalition and the structural composition of the coalition.