This paper exploits a natural experiment in Hesse where a reform of the electoral rule from mayor appointment by the local council towards direct mayor elections was introduced during a phase-in period from 1993 to 1998. The end of the term of the last appointed mayor varies across...

Studies of voting behavior in advanced industrial societies have demonstrated that voters rely on a plethora of information sources, including retrospective evaluations of parties, party identification and strong social networks, in making complex voting decisions. However, there is less...

This paper examines the importance of electoral rules for legislators' behavior. It uses a quasi-natural experiment that assigns whether legislators are elected under the "first-pass-the-post" (FPTP), or the proportional representation (PR) electoral rule. The experiment is generated by the...

The paper estimates the policy representation of 34 German parties that participate in the 2017 Bundestag (federal) election. For this purpose, the party positions on 31 topical issues are compared with the results of recent public opinion polls. Then we construct the party indices of popularity...