Does higher office always lead to more favoritism? We argue that firms may lose their benefit from a connected politicians ascent to higher office, if it entails stricter scrutiny that may reduce favoritism. Around close Congress elections, we find RDD-based evidence of this adverse effect that...

While persistence of political dynasties in a democracy has received attention, the performance of dynasts remains unstudied. using a regression discontinuity (RD) framework, we compare dynastic representatives, who defeat non-dynastic candidates by a close margin with non-dynastic...

Local politicians can function as crucial intermediaries between voters and party bosses in a clientelistic network. We study their role by matching data on 300 million welfare payments in the Indian state of West Bengal to village-level election returns. Local politicians systematically...