This paper estimates the causal impact of electing criminally accused politicians and their nature of criminality on ….3 percent increase in crime in districts, including crimes against women. The effect is more pronounced when the leaders are …

for contesting elections, making it critical to understand the role of politicians' education in their performance. We … and less-educated politicians. We find that narrowly electing a graduate leader, as compared to a non-graduate leader, in …

In 2000, as part of Tony Blairﾒs promised devolution of British government, an election was held for a newly created … and re-elected mayor. In the 2008 election, Livingstone was defeated by an equally unconventional candidate, Conservative …

election would have been more competitive due to the absence of herding and that alternative sequential structures would have …

capital we speculate that this is the result of incumbent politicians using their resources to establish clienteles. …

. We find that the share of voters who state a pre-election vote intention corresponding to their final vote choice … increases by 15 percentage points in the two months preceding the election. Changes in individual vote choices mostly result …

We test whether politicians can use direct contact to reconnect with citizens, increase turnout, and win votes. During …

In 2010, we informed a random set of Delhi councilors, some ineligible for re-election in their current ward, that a …

interest group's campaign contributions to politicians. We uncover a robust hump-shaped relationship between the voting share … estimates of electoral uncertainty and politicians effectiveness as perceived by the interest groups. Our approach also … implicitly delivers a novel method for estimating the impact of campaign spending on election outcomes: we find that an …