Tourism, Political Corruption and Voting Patterns in Spanish Municipalities

During the last decade, Spain has experienced an economic boom, together with a surge in political corruption at local level. In this context, we analyze the links between tourism –one of its most profitable industries, generating 11% of GDP– and political factors such as corruption and voting behavior at local level. For this purpose, we have related information on municipalities’ public accounts and fiscal revenues generated by businesses in the local area – together with other socioeconomic variables – to the results of the last four local elections (1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011). Our purpose is to identify whether touristic municipalities present differences from non-touristic ones. From our estimations, we find that tourism contributes to the existence of political corruption. Moreover, local political parties are benefited in touristic municipalities, and local governments are also proven to be more stable than in non-touristic boroughs.