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 …

, 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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

of experimentation is suboptimal, taking decisions by direct democracy, or electing risk-loving politicians, could …