This paper studies the effect of electoral rule disproportionality and the effect of the number of competing parties on the degree of platform polarization by the means of a unidimensional spatial model with policy motivated parties. We show that platform polarization is decreasing in the level...

We study an electoral competition model in which each voter is characterized by income level and non-economic characteristics, and where two vote share maximizing candidates, with fixed non-economic characteristics (differentiated candidates), strategically promise a level of redistribution. We...

We report on an experiment that tests for the effects of democratic versus hierarchical rules for joint decision making in organizations, like companies, which operate in a competitive environment. While discussion improves outcomes via an effect on public goods contributions, we find that there...