Do politicians tend to follow a strategy of ambiguity in their policy positions or a strategy of reputational development to reduce uncertainty about where they stand? Ambiguity could allow a legislator to avoid alienating constituents and to play rival interests off against each other to...

This paper develops a positive theory of how competition among political pressure groups shapes the organization of Congress and empirically investigates how such competition in financial services affects the distribution of political action committee (PAC) contributions to legislators.

Substantial public policy debate centers on campaign finance reform. Campaign resources can provide benefits to constituencies when used to fund the distribution of information, but voters can be harmed if candidates trade policy favors to special interests in exchange for contributions....

This paper introduces fiscal policy in a model of sovereign risk spreads (quot;spreadsquot;). Using panel data from emerging market countries, we find that reductions in public expenditure are a more powerful tool for reducing spreads than increases in revenues. Specifically, cuts in current...

This paper investigates the value of political institutions for financial markets, using panel data from emerging market countries. We test the hypothesis that changes in political institutions, such as improvements in democratic rights and increased government accountability, have a direct...

This paper develops a positive theory of how competition among political pressure groups shapes the organization of Congress and tests the theory using data on political action committees (PACs) in the financial services industries. For the Members of Congress, the first-best way to maximize PAC...

This paper investigates the value of political institutions for financial markets, using panel data from emerging market countries. We test the hypothesis that changes in political institutions, such as improvements in democratic rights and increased government accountability, have a direct...