National insights from local policy agendas: emerging patterns in municipal currencies in Brazil

Abstract

This paper examines the emerging landscape of municipal currencies in Brazil using government-program documents submitted by mayoral candidates to the Brazilian Electoral Court (TSE) during the 2024 elections. We employ computational text analysis to identify and classify municipal currency proposals and our findings reveal 98 elected mayors proposing such initiatives: 61 “social currencies” connected to municipal basic income programs, 40 “green currencies” linked to recycling schemes, and three hybrid cases. Results reveal important regional and partisan dynamics shaping municipal monetary innovation in Brazil and open a broader discussion about the rise of city-level policymaking. These initiatives are strongly concentrated in the Southeast and Northeast regions, supporting policy diffusion theories that emphasize neighborhood effects and the role of pioneering municipalities such as Maricá (RJ). City-level analysis indicates that, once major outliers are excluded, the adoption of municipal currencies is not restricted to wealthier municipalities, suggesting that fiscal capacity alone does not explain their diffusion. Politically, the findings challenge conventional expectations by showing that municipal currencies are not confined to left-wing agendas: most proposals originate from right-wing and center-right parties, particularly in the case of green currencies, pointing to a reframing of these instruments as tools of local economic management rather than purely redistributive policies. Finally, the paper suggests that municipal currencies in Brazil have evolved from isolated experiments into a diversified and politically transversal policy instrument. The study also provides a basis for monitoring the implementation of these commitments during the 2025-2028 municipal mandates.