that the model fits well data on the duration of negotiations and government durations in postwar Italy. Also, I show that … changes in the proposer selection process would not affect either the duration of negotiations or government durations …

test if some theoretically derived predictions of yardstick competition theory are supported by data, estimating to this … agreement with yardstick theory. On the other hand, the results of the estimation of the popularity equation are less supportive … of the theory, possibly as a result of the difficulty in controlling for public service quality and the simultaneous …