This paper addresses the personal linkages between the public administration and the legislaturethat emerge because public servants pursue a political mandate. There are concernsthat the strong representation of bureaucrats in many Western parliaments compromises theconstitutionally proposed...

Countries differ substantially in how they deal with politicians  that come from the public sector. Most constitutions include  incompatibility and  ineligibility rules  due  to  concerns about conflicts  of interest  and the politicization of the public  service.   We study  how...

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Traditional political economy has paid primary attention to the structuring of the principal-agent relationship between citizens and politicians and the role of competition and institutions in disciplining political agents. However, as the electoral control of politicians and the credibility of...</span>

AbstractSenior officials in the ministerial bureaucracy are responsible for the coordination of public service activity  and their number has grown enormously since World War II. We study the growth in employment  of this politically  sensitive high-profile occupational group from a political...

We study the harmonization of the base remuneration for the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who were previously paid like national parliamentarians implying large differences between the delegations from the 27 member countries. Based on detailed information on individual MEPs between...

<span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Attorneys elected to the US House of Representatives and to US state legislatures are systematically less likely to vote in favor of tort reforms that restrict tort litigation, but more likely to support bills that extend tort law. This finding is based on the analysis of 54 votes at the federal...</span>

AbstractIncreasing the attractiveness of voting is often seen as a remedy for unequal par- ticipation  and the influence of special-interest  groups on public policy.  However, lower voting costs may also bring less informed citizens to the poll inviting  efforts to sway these voters. We...

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"">The consequences of tobacco control policies for individual welfare are difficult to assess. We therefore evaluate the impact of smoking bans and cigarette prices on subjective well-being by analyzing data for 40 European countries and regions between 1990 and 2011. We exploit the staggered...</span>