The economic crisis was not just caused by a failure of regulation or economic policy; it was
a story of the failure of management in a fundamental sense—a deeply flawed approach to …

Do legislators and lobbyists trade favors? This study uses uncommon data sources and
plagiarism software to detect a rarely observed relationship between interest group lobbyists …

Political advertising on digital platforms has grown dramatically in recent years as
campaigns embrace new ways of targeting supporters and potential voters. We examine …

Inferences about individual campaign contributors are limited by how the Federal Election
Commission (FEC) collects and reports data. Only transactions that exceed a cycle-to-date …

In this thesis I build and test a theory combining societal explanations of politics with rational
choice institutional models. Every theory or model of democratic institutions includes …

Infrastructure provides critical support to the economy and contributes in an important way to
living standards; assessing the economic role of infrastructure requires defining and …

The entrance of Super Political Action Committees (Super PACs), outside groups with no
caps on fundraising or independent expenditures, prompts a reexamination of the role of …

Abstract Super PACs, 501 (c) 4 social welfare organizations, and 501 (c) 6 professional
associations are now major spenders in House elections. What remains unclear is how the …

The Political Geography of Campaign Finance examines the distribution of political
campaign contributions in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 preprimary election periods. Using …

How do candidates allocate their campaign resources and when do they change their
allocations? Using data of over 3.5 million expenditure items submitted by candidates who …