Electoral Systems and Female Representation in Politics: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity

Speeding, Punishment, and Recidivism – Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

This paper estimates the effects of temporary driver's license suspensions on driving behavior. A little known rule in the German traffic penalty catalogue maintains that drivers who commit a series of speeding transgressions within 365 days should have their license suspended for one month. My fuzzy regression discontinuity design exploits the quasi-random assignment of license suspensions cau...

Do Politicians Reward their Supporters? Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Ghana

We use a unique dataset collected from a random sample of schools in Ghana to test the “Patronage” hypothesis, that central government funds are targeted to districts that support the ruling party. We find evidence of patronage targeting to administrative districts, the level of government at which the national budget is allocated. However, there are no significant patronage effects at the parl...

Electoral Systems and the Representation of Ethnic Minorities: Evidence from Russia

Legislative Representation in Flexible-List Electoral Systems

We develop a theory of legislative representation in open and flexible list proportional rule electoral systems (OFPR). Our framework highlights how representatives’ desire to cultivate a personal vote may undermine or strengthen the pursuit of collective party goals. We show that whether collective and individual goals are in conflict depends on the flexibility of the list—the extent to which ...

Electoral Strategies in Mixed Systems of Representation

The dispute over the conflicting merits of proportional representation (PR) and plurality (PL) electoral systems is mainly a debate over which element, representation or stability, should be emphasized. Advocates of PR do not accept policies as democratically valid if they are made on an inadequate representational base. On the other hand, advocates of PL argue that representation is meaningles...