This study answers the question of why an ideological party system emerges in some democracies but not in others. Despite the importance of ideology in party competition, the relationships between parties and voters in developing democracies and how these are different from, or similar to, that...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has come to be seen as a promising avenue for boosting economic development. As a consequence, most developing countries now seek to attract FDI, often by making ex ante promises to foreign investors not to pass laws or regulations — or refrain from other...

This study takes advantage of a “natural experiment” to show how changes in political institutions shape politicians’ incentives, and in turn affect important policy outcomes in China. Beijing introduced the mandatory retirement age for provincial leaders in the 1980s, but it did not fully...

We characterize a ruler's decision of whether to censor media reports that convey public information to citizens who decide whether to revolt. We find: (1) a ruler gains (his ex ante expected payoff increases) by committing to censoring slightly less than he does in equilibrium: his equilibrium...

There is a tremendous amount of literature in Political Science dealing with the subject of voting behavior, however, the studies are mainly descriptive in nature rather than modelling. On the other hand, political marketing literature is in its infancy providing limited insights in...