This paper measures the relative importance of party platforms versus expected policy outcomes in the voting decisions of individuals in a proportional representation (PR) system. It uses survey pre-electoral data from the 2006 Israeli elections. This survey is critical as it provides a set of...

Autocrats face a dilemma. Continue with fraudulent electoral practices and risk revolt, or reduce fraud and risk losing elections. One solution is to structure electoral governance such that it allows for independence and professionalism at the center, lending credibility to the electoral...

This paper examines how party dominance affects elected politicians’ quality, measured by their career path. Politicians’ career is divided between political and technical or administrative posts. To examine the relationship between party dominance and career path, I use data from the...

We analyze how political discretion affects the selection of government workers, using individual-level data on political party membership and matched employer-employee data on the universe of formal workers in Brazil. Exploiting close mayoral races, we find that winning an election leads to an...

The present paper provides a short review of leading Israeli parties' positions on key issues. The list of issues was compiled based on the authors' choice and understanding of the political and social conditions prevalent in the country today. The list includes items such as judicial (legal...

A key feature of parliamentary democracy is government accountability vis-à-vis the legislature, but the important question of who speaks for the government—cabinet ministers or unelected bureaucrats, and the institutional underpinnings of this behavior—receives scant attention in the...

This paper explores empirically the role of nomination procedures on political selection and the determinants for adopting contestable selection methods such as primaries. Using data from Latin American parties, I find evidence that political competition increases probability of primary...

We observe that popularity shocks are crucial for electoral accountability beyond their effects on voters' behaviors. By focusing on Brazilian politics, we show that the disclosure of audit reports on the (mis)use of federal funds by local administrators affects the type of candidates who stand...

We investigate the role of political favouritism in the private education market. Using constituency-level panel data and a close-election regression discontinuity design, we estimate the causal effect of having a politician aligned with the state ruling party on the growth of private...