unilaterally, but faces competition from a political opponent in the future. Both parties care about voters payoffs, but they have … endogenously influence whether learning occurs through its policy choices (policy experimentation), future political competition …

governments to do the same. We find that if the government cannot manipulate state variables, more intense political competition … debt, vigorous political competition can render a compromise unsustainable and drive the economy to a low-welfare, high …-debt, long-run trap. Our analysis thus suggests a legislative tradeoff between restricting political competition and constraining …