voters' capacity to identify and empower well-suited politicians. In our model, candidates are heterogeneous in two … concentration of power in the hands of the election winner is optimal if and only if the conflict of interest is small. …

voters' capacity to identify and empower competent politicians. In our model, candidates are privately informed about their … motivation. In particular, full concentration of power is desirable if and only if politicians are mostly welfare-oriented. The …

the release of information? Using Brazilian elections and audits as an exogenous source of information, I show that both … competitiveness of elections and, therefore, candidates' spending. Only information disclosed prior to electoral campaigns impacts …