Significant government support for biofuels has led to rapid growth in U.S. ethanol production andresearch to develop more advanced biofuels. In this paper we construct a general equilibrium, openeconomy model that captures the rationale typically invoked to justify government intervention in...

This thesis comprises four empirical research papers in the area of political economics. While the first two chapters deal with questions related to direct democracy, chapters three and four are about topics linked to representative democracy.