A key tenet of representative democracy is that politicians' discourse and policies should follow voters' preferences … content of 9,000 primary and general election websites of candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, 2002-2016, as well … opponent, as compared to the platform of the runner-up who did not qualify for the last round. We conclude that politicians …

One frequently overlooked aspect of the U.S.-style electoral college system is that it discourages election fraud. In a … presidential election based on the popular vote, competing political parties are motivated to manipulate votes in areas where they … electoral college system provides more effective protection against election fraud compared to the popular vote system. While …

interest group's campaign contributions to politicians. We uncover a robust hump-shaped relationship between the voting share … estimates of electoral uncertainty and politicians effectiveness as perceived by the interest groups. Our approach also … implicitly delivers a novel method for estimating the impact of campaign spending on election outcomes: we find that an …

This paper analyzes the effort allocation choices of incumbent politicians when voters are uncertain about politician … would strictly prefer to have a consensus policy implemented. As such, the desire of politicians to convince voters that … allocations. Transparency over the politicians' effort choices can re-enforce the distortions, and for some parameters can be bad …

. We find that the share of voters who state a pre-election vote intention corresponding to their final vote choice … increases by 15 percentage points in the two months preceding the election. Changes in individual vote choices mostly result …

We test whether politicians can use direct contact to reconnect with citizens, increase turnout, and win votes. During …

In 2010, we informed a random set of Delhi councilors, some ineligible for re-election in their current ward, that a …

This paper provides an investigation of the role of momentum and social learning in sequential voting systems. In the … those in early states from voting returns. Candidates experience momentum effects when their performance in early states … exceeds expectations. The empirical application focuses on the responses of daily polling data to the release of voting …

In theory, free and fair elections can improve the selection of politicians and incentivize them to exert effort. In … practice, incumbency advantage and coordination issues may lead to the (re)election of bad politicians. We ask whether these … elections, we find that winning an election increases candidates' chances to win the next election by 25.1 percentage points …