In many public policy areas, randomized policy experiments can greatly contribute to our knowledge of the effects of policies and can thus help to improve public policy. However, policy experiments are not very common. This paper studies whether a lack of appreciation of policy experiments among...

In this paper, we examine the effect of mortgage credit market conditions on U.S. elections. During the financial crisis of 2008, the U.S economy experienced a sudden drop in mortgage credit supply. According to the previous research, voters responded to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 by...

Do elected politicians use public money differently depending on their ideology? When is partisanship most apparent during a mandate? The existing literature is mixed. Based on a regression discontinuity design, I show that political color significantly impacts public spending in French...

The combination of populism and protectionism emerged primarily from social class cleavages during the 20th century, to protect those affected by international economic competition. In the 21st century these cleavages have also involved an ethnic dimension, which regards the ethnic majority as...

This paper examines the link between political support for basic income funded by linear income taxation and income inequality by household and gender. We develop a model with an increasingly right-skewed distribution of skill across households and a gender wage gap within households. Household...

Addressing climate change requires individual behavior change and voter support for pro-climate policies, yet surprisingly little is known about how to achieve these outcomes. In this paper, we estimate causal effects of additional education on pro-climate outcomes using new compulsory schooling...

The existence of dominant parties in democracies is an enduring puzzle, in part because spatial models of voting suggest that an opposition party should be able to challenge the incumbent by proposing more popular policies. We consider the preeminent case of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party...

In a functioning democracy, the legitimacy of government rests on citizens' confidence in the political system and its decisions. The ability to express preferences and consider these preferences in decision-making is a critical aspect of democracy. This study investigates the impact of voting...

A lack of transparency about policy performance can pose a major obstacle to welfare-enhancing policy competition across jurisdictions. In parallel surveys with German citizens and state parliamentarians, we document that both groups misperceive the performance of their state’s education...