We show how choice of the method of measuring the party positions impacts the conclusions about equilibrium positions of parties in a spatial model. We find that for the same set of voters’ ideal points we should observe either divergence or convergence to the mean, depending on the choice of...

Reductions in the generosity of welfare benefits and less progressive taxation have decreased the redistributive impact of fiscal policy since the mid-1990’s across the advanced democracies. We argue that the strong increase in the diversity of goods observed those last decades may have...

This paper analyzes secessions through the lens of representative democratic institutions and considers the incentives of partisan political parties to support independence movements.  It points out that, if anything, separatists should expect to receive support from exactly the "unlike-minded"...

Most transitional economies in Central and Eastern Europe have rather surprisingly resisted protectionist pressures - at least during early stages of reform - and adopted liberal trade policies. In this paper the course of trade policy during transition is explained from a political economy...

The ‘mean voter theorem’ implies that candidates should choose identical policy positions in a two-candidate race if voting is probabilistic. This result is in fact an artifact of the assumption that the candidates maximize expected vote share or probability of win, which is not...

This paper presents an overlapping-generation model featuring probabilistic vot- ing over two policy issues, namely, pension and public goods. To capture the forward-looking behavior of voters, we characterize a Markov-perfect political equi- librium in which the two policy variables are...

We show that informative political campaigns can increase political extremism and decrease voter welfare. We present a model of elections in which candidate ideology is strategically selected prior to a campaign which reveals information about candidate quality. Documented means by which...

This paper characterizes an intergenerational welfare state with endogenous education and pension choice under general equilibrium-probabilistic voting. We show that politically implementing public education program always increases the future human capital, but this higher future human capital...