I analyze the effects of ethnic and religious diversity on corruption. Using data from US states, I find a positive and linear relationship between ethnic/religious polarization and corruption and an inverse-U-shaped relationship between ethnic/religious fractionalization and corruption.

Using LCV score data, we find that female legislators favor stricter environmental policies than do their male counterparts. Moreover, gender-corrected estimates suggest that voters do not push environmental policy towards the middle, but rather select the ideologically closest candidate.