"In this study I explain why economic voting is so widespread and, yet, why incumbents so often win amidst economic downturns and challengers in boom times. I account for the fact that some candidates drastically outperform the predictions of economic voting models while others underperform....

In recent decades, democratic countries have signed hundreds of international environmental agreements (IEAs). Most of these agreements, however, are weak: they generally do not include effective enforcement or monitoring mechanisms. This is a puzzle in standard economic models. To study this...