political agency setting. In the baseline two-period case where only the politician's actions are observable before the election … probability before the election (Maskin and Tirole's "feedback" case). In the three-period case, with two elections, the dynamic … evolution of confirmation bias can lead to more pandering before the first election. Finally, we show that when confirmation …

. Elections are needed as a carrot and a stick to motivate politicians, yet politicians who are overly interested in re-election …

state tier. This e ffect only materializes in the election year which suggests that mayors under the new electoral rule put … more e ffort into grant applications for highly visible infrastructure projects in order to increase their re-election …