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on Collective Decision-Making |
| By: | Bruckner, Dominik; Sahm, Marco |
| Abstract: | Intra-party contests, such as the US primaries, are often used to select a candidate for a subsequent cross-party election. A more accurate selection may improve the quality of the candidate but detract more resources from the subsequent campaign. We model this trade-off as a problem of contest design and show that extreme accuracy levels are optimal: maximum accuracy if the potential candidates are sufficiently heterogeneous, and a highly random selection otherwise. In an extension of our model, the heterogeneity between potential candidates reflects the degree of political polarization within a party. Our results explain varying primary designs within and between countries and shed light upon the paradox of limited competition within democratic parties. |
| Keywords: | Contest Design, Accuracy, Elections, Intra-Party Competition, Political Polarization |
| JEL: | C72 D72 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bamber:306853 |
| By: | Hart, Oliver D.; Landemore, Hélène; Zingales, Luigi |
| Abstract: | We propose a novel way to give mutual funds' investors a voice, an alternative to the pass-through voting large mutual funds companies are starting to implement. Based on the experience of citizen assemblies in the political sphere, we propose allocating the power to decide how to cast mutual funds' votes in corporate ballots on environmental, social, and political issues to a randomly drawn assembly of its investors. We analyze the advantages and limitations of such a model and discuss various implementation issues. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cbscwp:307593 |
| By: | Jaime Bonet-Morón; Jhorland Ayala-García; Jorge Guerra-España |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between political continuity and public municipal debt in Colombia, highlighting how political cycles influence fiscal behavior at the subnational level. Unlike national cycles, local political dynamics, marked by consecutive electoral victories of the same party, significantly impact fiscal policy and debt accumulation. Using a Kink Regression Discontinuity design, we explore the effects of these electoral outcomes on public financial debt. Our findings reveal that municipalities governed by the same party or coalition across successive elections exhibit a 0.25% increase in debt levels for every percentage point increase in their election win margin. This trend becomes more pronounced over time, with debt levels peaking in election years. The robustness of our results is confirmed through various bandwidths and placebo tests, which include random shuffling of electoral outcomes and reassignment of electoral results from different years. Our study contributes to the understanding of how political stability or continuity can shape fiscal outcomes at the regional level, a topic that has received limited attention in the political economy literature. **** RESUMEN: Este artículo investiga la relación entre la continuidad política y la deuda pública municipal en Colombia, destacando cómo los ciclos políticos influyen en el comportamiento fiscal subnacional. A diferencia de los ciclos nacionales, la dinámica política local, marcada por victorias electorales consecutivas del mismo partido, impacta significativamente la política fiscal y la acumulación de deuda. Utilizando un diseño de Regresión Discontinua, exploramos los efectos de estos resultados electorales sobre la deuda financiera pública. Nuestros hallazgos revelan que los municipios gobernados por el mismo partido o coalición a lo largo de elecciones sucesivas exhiben un aumento del 0, 25% en los niveles de deuda por cada punto porcentual de aumento en su margen de victoria electoral. Esta tendencia se vuelve más pronunciada con el tiempo, y los niveles de deuda alcanzan su punto máximo en los años electorales. La solidez de nuestros resultados se confirma a través de varios escenarios y pruebas placebo, que incluyen la mezcla aleatoria de resultados electorales y la reasignación de resultados electorales de diferentes años. Nuestro estudio contribuye a la comprensión de cómo la estabilidad política o la continuidad pueden dar forma a los resultados fiscales a nivel regional, un tema que ha recibido poca atención en la literatura de economía política. |
| Keywords: | Public Finances, Local Debt, Political Processes, Elections and Voting Behavior, Finanzas públicas, deuda local, procesos políticos, elecciones y comportamiento electoral |
| JEL: | P25 H63 H72 D72 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:region:331 |
| By: | Romain Espinosa (CIRED, CNRS, Nogent-sur-Marne, France); Fabien Moizeau (Univ Rennes, CNRS, CREM – UMR6211, F-35000 Rennes, France) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the long-run evolution of Catholics’ view on State secularism in France. We explore the roots of the opposition of Catholics to secularism that can be traced back as far as the 1789 French Revolution. We provide evidence that the divide between Catholics and supporters of secularism persisted throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, affecting votes on the major secularization Laws during the Third Republic. We argue that the dual French educational system, partitioned into Catholic and secular schools, may have contributed to this persistence. We then show that Catholics eventually became supporters of secularism in France, closing the political divide on the issue. However, this shift in opinion can be explained by Catholics viewing secularism as a way of limiting the influence of Islam. We argue that views about the involvement of Muslim/Catholic authorities in public debate are significant determinants of political supply in France. Last, we show that Catholics, who now support secularism, continue to exhibit different voting behavior and attitudes than Atheists (regarding women’s rights and same-sex legislation). |
| Keywords: | Secularism, cultural persistence, voting behavior, Catholicism |
| JEL: | Z12 K10 D72 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:2024-12 |
| By: | C. Caporali; F. Crudu; C. Detotto |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the causal relationship between terrorist violence during the Years of Lead and the decline in voter turnout in Italian political elections. The analysis, which covers electoral participation at the NUTS-3 level from 1972 to 1992, relies on data from the Global Terrorism Dataset for information regarding domestic terrorist attacks. Using causal mediation analysis (CMA) and the front-door criterion (FDC), we identify how the magnitude of attacks – measured by casualties, injuries, and material damages – affects electoral participation. Our findings reveal a nuanced impact of terrorism. Specifically, the results are mainly driven by material damage and to a lesser extent by the number of casualties. |
| Keywords: | causal mediation analysis;front-door criterion;terrorism;turnout |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202426 |