From Extreme to Mainstream: The Erosion of Social Norms

By Leonardo Bursztyn, Georgy Egorov, and Stefano Fiorin

American Economic Review, November 2020

Social norms, usually persistent, can change quickly when new public information arrives, such as a surprising election outcome. People may become more inclined to express views or take actions previously perceived as stigmatized and may judge others less...

A Model of Competing Narratives

By Kfir Eliaz and Ran Spiegler

American Economic Review, December 2020

We formalize the argument that political disagreements can be traced to a "clash of narratives." Drawing on the "Bayesian Networks" literature, we represent a narrative by a causal model that maps actions into consequences, weaving a selection of other ra...

Strategy-Proofness, Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives, and Majority Rule

By Partha Dasgupta and Eric Maskin

American Economic Review: Insights, December 2020

We show that strategy-proofness, the Pareto principle, anonymity, neutrality, independence of irrelevant alternatives, and decisiveness uniquely characterize majority rule on any domain of preferences for which there exists a voting rule satisfying these ...

Mobilizing the Masses for Genocide

By Thorsten Rogall

American Economic Review, January 2021

Do political elites use armed groups to foster civilian participation in genocidal violence? Are armed groups employed strategically? How do they mobilize civilians? I investigate these questions using data from the Rwandan Genocide. To establish causalit...

Politically Feasible Reforms of Nonlinear Tax Systems

By Felix J. Bierbrauer, Pierre C. Boyer, and Andreas Peichl

American Economic Review, January 2021

We study reforms of nonlinear income tax systems from a political economy perspective. We present a median voter theorem for monotonic tax reforms, reforms so that the change in the tax burden is a monotonic function of income. We also provide an empirica...

The Political Boundaries of Ethnic Divisions

By Samuel Bazzi and Matthew Gudgeon

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2021

We use a policy experiment in Indonesia to show how local political boundaries affect ethnic tension. Redrawing district borders along group lines reduces conflict. However, the gains in stability are undone or even reversed when new boundaries increase e...

Do Democracies Have Different Public Policies than Nondemocracies?

[Symposium: Political Economy]

By Casey B. Mulligan, Ricard Gil, and Xavier Sala-i-Martin

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004

Estimates of democracy's effect on the public sector are obtained from comparisons of 142 countries over the years 1960-90. Based on three tenets of voting theory--that voting mutes policy preference intensity, political power is equally distributed in de...

Constitutions and Economic Policy

[Symposium: Political Economy]

By Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004

Estimating Judicial Ideology

[Symposium: Polarization in Courts]

By Adam Bonica and Maya Sen

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2021

We review the substantial literature on estimating judicial ideology, from the US Supreme Court to the lowest state court. As a way to showcase the strengths and drawbacks of various measures, we further analyze trends in judicial polarization within the ...

Can Structural Changes Fix the Supreme Court?

[Symposium: Polarization in Courts]

By Daniel Hemel

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2021

Proposals for structural changes to the US Supreme Court have attracted attention in recent years amid a perceived “legitimacy crisis” afflicting the institution. This article first assesses whether the court is in fact facing a legitimacy crisis and ...

Rational Choice Theory and the Paradox of Not Voting

[Symposium: Political Economy]

By Timothy J. Feddersen

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004

Legislative Organization

[Symposium: Political Economy]

By Keith Krehbiel

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004

With an emphasis on the U.S. Congress, this essay addresses political economy approaches to the study of legislative organization. Simple models provide a foundation for more sophisticated studies of one of two problems: how coalitions of intense minoriti...

Social Media, News Consumption, and Polarization: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By Ro'ee Levy

American Economic Review, March 2021

Does the consumption of ideologically congruent news on social media exacerbate polarization? I estimate the effects of social media news exposure by conducting a large field experiment randomly offering participants subscriptions to conservative or lib...

Review of Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy by Anders Åslund

By Michael Alexeev

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2021

Anders Åslund provides a comprehensive description of the main political and economic events of Vladimir Putin's 20 years at the helm of the country. In politics, Åslund shows how Putin skillfully maneuvered to destroy democracy in Russia. I argue that ...

Planning on the Potomac: A Review Essay on Jason E. Taylor's Deconstructing the Monolith: The Microeconomics of the National Industrial Recovery Act

By Joshua K. Hausman

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2021

Taylor (2019) details heterogeneity in the effects of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) across industries and across time. Through first the President's Reemployment Act (PRA) and then industry-specific "codes of fair competition," the NIRA rais...

Cell Phone Access and Election Fraud: Evidence from a Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design in Afghanistan

By Robert M. Gonzalez

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2021

This paper examines the impact of cell phone access on election fraud. I combine cell phone coverage maps with the location of polling centers during the 2009 Afghan presidential election to pinpoint which centers were exposed to coverage. Results from a ...

The Power of Example: Corruption Spurs Corruption

By Nicolás Ajzenman

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2021

Does political corruption erode civic values and foster dishonest behavior? I test this hypothesis in the context of Mexico by combining data on local government corruption and cheating on school tests. I find that, following revelations of corruption by ...

Historical Presidential Betting Markets

[Symposium: Event Markets]

By Paul W. Rhode and Koleman S. Strumpf

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2004

This paper analyzes the large and often well-organized markets for betting on U.S. presidential elections that operated between 1868 and 1940. Four main points are addressed. First, we show that the market did a remarkable job forecasting elections in an ...

State Budget Deficit Dynamics and the California Debacle

By Steven M. Sheffrin

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2004

This paper analyzes the recent experience with state budget deficits in the United States, with an in-depth analysis of the California experience. Compared to prior recessions, states were slower to make adjustments in taxes and spending this time. The pa...

How Research Affects Policy: Experimental Evidence from 2,150 Brazilian Municipalities

By Jonas Hjort, Diana Moreira, Gautam Rao, and Juan Francisco Santini

American Economic Review, May 2021

Can research findings change political leaders' beliefs and policies? We use experiments with 2,150 Brazilian municipalities to measure mayors' demand for and response to research information. In one experiment, we find that mayors are willing to pay to l...