In contrast to previous research, Dunning and Nilekani (2013 APSR) find that household level data do not support the view that the distribution of targeted public benefits to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes has increased as a result of quotas in Indian village councils. Using a natural...

This online appendix proves the central result in Lalley and Weyl (Forthcoming). The full text PDF for "Qaudratic Voting: How Mechanism Design Can Radicalize Democracy" may be found here: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2003531

Inefficiencies in the bureaucratic organization of the state are often viewed as important factors in retarding economic development. Why certain societies choose or end up with such inefficient organizations has received very little attention, however. In this paper, we present a simple theory...

We contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exploration of determinants of performance of cities. We construct a preliminary worldwide database for cities, containing variables and indicators of globalization (at the country and city level), city...

Spanish Abstract: La evidencia empírica sobre la relación entre migración, finanzas públicas y decisiones de gasto, argumenta que los efectos están mediados por sentimientos de (anti)solidaridad de los nativos y por la (in)capacidad de los migrantes de afectar las decisiones de política....

Public service reform often entails broad benefits for society and concentrated costs for interest groups. Do the electoral benefits outweigh the costs for politicians who implement reform? This paper examines the electoral effects of a randomized Liberian school reform which increased student...

We empirically analyze the effect of political support for the government on voluntary tax compliance. To this end, we use 33 survey results of the contingent valuation (CV) method developed and widely used for the valuation of non-market goods in the field of environmental economics. The degree...

The international law principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources posits that governments bear the sovereign rights to manage natural resources on behalf of citizens. That citizens have rights over natural resources at all however detaches from governance realities showcasing...

Lalley and Weyl (2016) propose a mechanism for binary collective decisions, Quadratic Voting, and prove its approximate efficiency in large populations in a stylized environment. They motivate their proposal substantially based on its greater robustness when compared with pre-existing efficient...

Commitment voting is a mechanism for signalling intensity of preferences and long-term commitment to governance decisions in proof of stake blockchains. In commitment voting, the voting weight of a vote in any given election is determined by 1) the amount of tokens under a voters control and 2)...