Welfare benefit sanctions are a common tool in many social insurance systems. Using a regression discontinuity design based on close elections, we investigate how representatives’ political alignment influences the implementation of a new sanction regime in the UK. Our results show that...

This research examines impacts of austerity on the political instability in the European Union, defined as elevated levels of electoral volatility and ideological polarization. By analyzing macroeconomic theories that elucidate the effects of austerity on citizens' wealth and the national...

Conventional wisdom holds that voters punish governments that implement fiscal austerity. Yet, most empirical studies, which rely on ex-post yearly austerity measures, do not find supportive evidence. This paper revisits the issue using action-based, real-time, ex-ante measures of fiscal...

Der politische Erfolg der Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) bei der Bundestagswahl 2017 lässt sich auch mit negativen Auswirkungen einer schrumpfenden Beschäftigung im verarbeitenden Gewerbe erklären. Dieser politische Effekt einer schrumpfenden Beschäftigung ist in Regionen mit vitaler...