A classic question about democratic elections is how much they are able to influence
politician behavior by forcing them to anticipate future reelection attempts, especially in …

We propose a way to formalize the relationship between descriptive analysis and structural
estimation. A researcher reports an estimate ĉ of a structural quantity of interest c that is …

Leading theories of how voters choose between candidates are rooted in two very different
paradigms, with starkly different behavioral implications. Exploiting the incentive structure of …

Localism, Pretext, and the Color of School Dollars Page 1 Article Localism, Pretext, and the
Color of School Dollars Derek W. Blackt Introduction …

We study two dimensions of complexity that may interfere with individual choice. The first
one is object complexity, which corresponds to the difficulty in evaluating any given …

Quantifying the value that legislators give to reelection relative to policy is crucial to
understanding electoral accountability. We estimate the preferences for office and policy of …

How does the structure of an organization affect corruption? This paper analyzes a model
that views organizations as networks on which coalitions of corrupt accomplices may form …

To enact a policy, a leader needs votes from q committee members with heterogeneous
opposition intensities. She sequentially offers transfers in exchange for votes. The transfers …

Abstract In the United States, Supreme Court justices often vote along ideological lines. Why
this is the case remains incompletely understood. To learn more about justices' preferences …

We consider binary private contributions to public good projects that succeed when the
number of contributors exceeds a threshold. We show that for standard distributions of …