This paper provides a simple model to explain effect of political alignment between different tiers of government on policy choices and election outcomes. We derive precise predictions that, as long as voters attribute most of the credit for providing public goods to the local government: (i)...

The 2017 U.S. Senate Special Election in Alabama, which was decided on 12 December 2017, was one of the most contentious and scandal-laden political campaigns in recent memory. The Republican candidate, Roy Moore, gained notoriety during the 2017 campaign when a number of women alleged to...

Wie sollen die Regeln für Entscheidungsprozesse gestaltet werden und wie sollen Institutionen aussehen? Diese Arbeit trägt zur Beantwortung dieser übergeordneten Frage bei, in dem sie auf kommunaler Ebene ökonomische, fiskalische und politische Effekte von Institutionen mit empirischen...

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of mayor's characteristics (education, experience and gender) on fiscal indicators of Brazilian municipalities. We use regression discontinuity and the outcomes of close elections to identify causal effects for 2000, 2004 and 2008. We find...

Abstract AbstractWie sollen die Regeln für Entscheidungsprozesse gestaltet werden und wie sollen Institutionen aussehen? Diese Arbeit trägt zur Beantwortung dieser übergeordneten Frage bei, in dem sie auf kommunaler Ebene ökonomische, fiskalische und politische Effekte von Institutionen mit...

Economic incentives play a key role in the decision to run for office, but little is known on how they shape immigrants' selection into candidacy. We study this question using a two-period Roy model and show that if returns to labour market experience are higher for migrants than natives,...