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on Positive Political Economics |
| By: | Joseph Engelberg; Jorge Guzman; Runjing Lu; William Mullins |
| Abstract: | Republicans start more firms than Democrats. In a sample of 40 million party-identified Americans between 2005 and 2017, we find that 6% of Republicans and 4% of Democrats become entrepreneurs. This partisan entrepreneurship gap is time-varying: Republicans increase their relative entrepreneurship during Republican administrations and decrease it during Democratic administrations, amounting to a partisan reallocation of 170,000 new firms over our 13-year sample. We find sharp changes in partisan entrepreneurship around the elections of President Obama and President Trump, and the strongest effects among the most politically active partisans: those that donate and vote. |
| JEL: | G41 G51 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30249&r= |
| By: | Pedro Bessone; Filipe R. Campante; Claudio Ferraz; Pedro Souza |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between the spread of social media platforms and the communication and responsiveness of politicians towards voters, in the context of the expansion of Facebook in Brazil. We use self-collected data on the universe of Facebook activities by federal legislators and the variation in access induced by the spread of the 3G mobile phone network to establish three sets of findings: (i) Politicians use social media extensively to communicate with constituents, finely targeting localities while addressing policy-relevant topics; (ii) They increase their online engagement, especially with places where they have a large pre-existing vote share; but (iii) They shift their offline engagement (measured by speeches and earmarked transfers) away from connected municipalities within their base of support. Our results suggest that, rather than increasing responsiveness, social media may enable politicians to solidify their position with core supporters using communication strategies, while shifting resources away towards localities that lag in social media presence. |
| JEL: | D72 H72 L86 L96 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30306&r= |
| By: | Debasis Mishra (Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi); Xu Lang (Southwest University of Finance and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study a model of voting with two alternatives in a symmetric environment. We characterize the interim allocation probabilities that can be implemented by a symmetric voting rule. We show that every such interim allocation probabilities can be implemented as a convex combination of two families of deterministic voting rules: qualified majority and qualified anti-majority. We also provide analogous results by requiring implementation by a unanimous voting rule. A consequence of our results is that if the prior is indepenent, every symmetric and orinally Bayesian incentive compatible voting rule is reduced (interim) form equivalent to a symmetric and strategy-proof voting rule. |
| Keywords: | reduced form voting, unanimous voting, ordinal Bayesian incentive compatibility |
| JEL: | D82 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:alo:isipdp:22-03&r= |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe (University of Trier); Le, Thi Xuan Thu (University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | While works councils provide a highly developed mechanism to promote workplace democracy, research on their consequences has been dominated by economic aspects. This study brings a new perspective to the understanding of works councils by examining their influence on workers’ political behavior. Political spillover theory suggests that participation in the firm’s decision making has the potential to foster workers’ political participation in civic society. Our study for Germany indeed finds a positive association between the presence of a works council and workers’ interest in politics. This holds in panel data estimations including a large set of controls and accounting for unobserved individual-specific factors. However, separate estimations by gender show a positive association between works councils and political interest only for men, but not for women. Traditional gender roles and disproportionate responsibility for family may make it difficult for women to be politically engaged even when a works council is present. |
| Keywords: | works council, works councilor, union member, gender, political interest |
| JEL: | J51 J52 J53 J58 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15444&r= |
| By: | Anukriti, S (World Bank); Erten, Bilge (Northeastern University); Mukherjee, Priya (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of female leaders on intimate partner violence experienced by women in districts from which they are elected. Exposure to female leaders in state legislatures in India increases the likelihood that female constituents in rural areas report experiencing physical violence from their husbands. This effect can be explained by an increase in women's modern contraceptive use—resulting from improvements in public provision of health services in exposed districts—which leads to marital conflict, especially when the husband has a stronger preference for sons relative to the wife. |
| Keywords: | intimate partner violence, female leaders, elections, India, contraception, representation |
| JEL: | D72 J16 J13 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15395&r= |
| By: | García-Ramos, Aixa |
| Abstract: | Mexico has experienced a dramatic increase in violence during the last decade. This increase has been associated with turf wars among Drug Trafficking Organisations (DTOs) for the control of strategic territories. This paper examines whether these territorial disputes are higher during the lame duck period, when incumbent DTOs might be relatively weaker. Using homicides as a proxy for turf wars, my results show support for this hypothesis. The increase in homicides is concentrated on municipalities in which the PRI wins the election. In contrast, those in which the PAN wins experience a decrease. |
| Keywords: | Organised crime,violence,elections |
| JEL: | D72 K42 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:upadvr:v9222&r= |
| By: | Valentina Stöhr (TUMCS for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides insight into the impact of party cues on the public’s desire for climate protection during the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, the effects of cues from one or multiple parties as well as the mechanisms behind these effects are analyzed. Utilizing the case of Germany’s multi-party system, two online survey experiments with a representative sample of the German voting population are conducted. Despite finding rather small effect sizes overall, results show that a party statement in favor of more climate protection is effective in changing participants’ opinions towards the same direction. People appear to be even more impressionable when they receive unexpected cues or are lead to believe that all parties work together to fight climate change. Finally, respondents that do not care about or oppose climate protection are more easily persuaded. Thus, these results could be employed to shape the way politicians and parties in multi-party systems convey the need for more ambitious climate policies. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Party Cues, Multi-party System, Experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D91 Q54 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiw:wpaper:23&r= |
| By: | Joshua Fjelstul (Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva); Simon Hug (Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva); Christopher Kilby (Department of Economics, Villanova School of Business, Villanova University) |
| Abstract: | Existing databases for UNGA voting (e.g., Bailey et al. 2017) provide excellent coverage of United Nations General Assembly voting on resolutions that were adopted by roll call vote. These databases, however, have some known limitations: They were built on historical dataset (e.g., the ICPSR dataset) that have varying coverage and definitions. They do not cover resolutions adopted by consensus. They do not consistently cover votes on draft resolutions that failed, i.e., votes on resolutions that were not adopted, or votes leading up to consideration by the UNGA. In this paper, we present an updated dataset that attempts to expand and improve the consistency of the UNGA decisions covered. We provide some comparisons of our database with other UNGA datasets, as well as explore the implications of more complete data for existing and future research. |
| Keywords: | United Nations General Assembly; roll call voting |
| JEL: | F53 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vil:papers:56&r= |