Showing 1 - 10 of 3,045
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 …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011584560
I study a one-dimensional Hotelling-Downs model of electoral competition in which unelectable fringe candidates with extreme policy platforms are an integral part of the political process. When the preferences of voters change over time, and there are restrictions on political parties changing...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014189677
, potential candidates compete in a contest to become their party's nominee. At the election stage, the nominated candidates … campaign by making non-binding promises to voters. Confirming the model's key predictions, we find in the experiment that …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011543745
Since good-looking politicians win more votes, a beauty advantage for politicians on the left or on the right is bound … to have political consequences. We show that politicians on the right look more beautiful in Europe, the United States … candidates and that politicians on the right benefit more from beauty in low-information elections. Evidence from real and …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011289386
We study electoral competition among politicians who are heterogeneous both in competence and in how much they care … politicians may have stronger incentives to behave opportunistically if other politicians are more likely to behave … politicians’ incentives to behave opportunistically increase with politicians’ pay and with polarization of policy preferences. …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011335188
In this paper, we address empirically the trade-offs involved in choosing between bureaucrats and politicians. In order … counterparts (”politicians”). We evaluate how performance would change if the courts replaced majority rule with unanimity rule …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014194725
When politicians are short-term oriented or future elections do not sufficiently reflect the success of past policies …, democratic elections cannot motivate politicians to undertake long-term socially beneficial projects. When politicians can offer … if the public is unsure about the politicians' time preferences. In the non-commitment case, incentive contracts may need …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013321142
of experimentation is suboptimal, taking decisions by direct democracy, or electing risk-loving politicians, could …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014159525
We construct a model in which an incumbent and a challenger decide whether to focus on policy or ability in electoral campaigning, and a media outlet then decides whether to gather news. We show that a candidate's strategy on which issue to focus on (i.e., campaign messages) can be a signal...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012949300
We explore how public opinion polls affect candidates' campaign spending in political competition. Generally, polls lead to (more) asymmetric behavior. Under a majority rule there always exists an equilibrium in which the initially more popular candidate invests more in the campaign and thereby...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010224792