dataset of attacks directed towards Italian local politicians to study how (and why) criminal organizations use violence … outcome and ii) after elections, to influence politicians from the beginning of their term. We provide causal evidence in … favor of the latter hypothesis. The probability of being a target of violence increases in the weeks right after an election …

This paper estimates the causal impact of electing criminally accused politicians and their nature of criminality on …

In their pursuit of being elected, politicians might not provide their constituents with independent viewpoints, but …, "candor", can be sustained as equilibria. This means that the public's trust or distrust in politicians may be self …-fulfilling prophecies. Importantly, the more informed politicians are about public opinion, the more likely it is that populist behavior can …

the mayoral election in March 2020, the Bavarian state government announced an official state of emergency with measures …

have a down-up characteristic. We show that voters cannot motivate politicians to invest in down-up policies by their … macroeconomic developments. Finally, we comment on practical issues when such contracts are used in election races …

rise in media bias affects the election outcome in a non-monotonic way, and reduces voter welfare by decreasing the …We develop a tractable theory to study the impact of biased media on election outcomes, voter turnout and welfare. News … elections, the former determines the election outcome, whereas the latter drives voter turnout. With a single media outlet, a …

́electoral prospects improve? We study this question with a natural experiment from the German federal state of Hesse. The … experiment is the abolishment of an explicit electoral threshold (the so called "five percent hurdle") for local elections in … elections, but local politicians from large mainstream parties had the ability to adjust municipal political institutions in …