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The perceived impact of immigration on native workers’ labour market outcomes Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-09-06 Bernd Hayo, Duncan H.W. Roth
A sizeable literature analyses how immigration affects attitudes towards migrants and discusses differences between socio-economic groups and their potential correlation with perceived concerns about labour market competition. Against the background of the large-scale influx of refugees into Germany between 2015 and 2016, this paper uses data from a unique and representative survey of the German population
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Support for temporary protection of displaced populations in the EU: A conjoint experiment Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-09-02 Michal Krawczyk, Andrea Blasco, Tomasz Gajderowicz, Marek Giergiczny
Millions of people were forced to flee Ukraine after Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022, one of the fastest displacements in decades. Citizens' response in EU countries (where most displaced Ukrainians arrived) has been considerably more positive than in past refugee crises. This study investigates several possible drivers of this difference. We conduct a large conjoint experiment in six EU Member
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The grass is always greener on the other side: (Unfair) inequality and support for democracy Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Fabian Reutzel
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Fiscal rules, capital controls, and cross-border financial integration Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Nour-eddine Ech-charfi
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Modeling the presidential approval ratings of the United States using machine-learning: Does climate policy uncertainty matter? Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-28 Elie Bouri, Rangan Gupta, Christian Pierdzioch
In the wake of a massive thrust on designing policies to tackle climate change, we study the role of climate policy uncertainty in impacting the presidential approval ratings of the United States (US). We control for other policy related uncertainties and geopolitical risks, over and above macroeconomic and financial predictors used in earlier literature on drivers of approval ratings of the US president
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When citizens legalize drugs Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-22 Elena Lucchese, Paolo Roberti
The demand for drug legalization is remarkably heterogeneous across countries and over time. A theory is presented to show that ruling politicians can influence this demand by choosing the level of enforcement of drug laws which will influence their exposure to drug use and their views on legalization. If legalization has, overall, expected social benefits, politicians opposed to it will adopt a higher
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Self-benefits, fiscal risk, and political support for the public healthcare system Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-08 Daiki Kishishita, Tomoko Matsumoto
The rapid aging of the population has become increasingly challenging for public healthcare systems. To ensure sustainability, governments must persuade their citizens to accept a larger burden, which is a difficult task. This study explored whether informing individuals of self-benefits from the healthcare system could be a solution. We first constructed a two-period overlapping generations model
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The value of national defense: Assessing public preferences for defense policy options Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-05 Salmai Qari, Tobias Börger, Tim Lohse, Jürgen Meyerhoff
Defense spending accounts for a large share of the budget in many countries, but the value of the resulting public good – national defense – has so far escaped assessment. Much of the literature has instead considered indirect benefits of defense spending in terms of greater economic growth or technological spillovers. In this paper, we assess the direct welfare effects of defense policy, namely an
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Electoral incentives to target investment in roads: Evidence from Italian municipalities Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-08-01 Massimiliano Ferraresi, Leonzio Rizzo, Riccardo Secomandi
Using a comprehensive dataset on Italian municipalities, we test whether investments in road services are affected by political manipulations motivated by the need of targeting a specific group of voters (construction firms). We show that road services investment in the year before election is 26% higher in municipalities with low density of construction firms and 40% higher in municipalities with
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Explaining the stringency of environmental policies: Domestic determinants or international policy coordination? Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-29 Isabelle Cadoret, Fabio Padovano
This paper examines how and to what extent spatial interactions among EU national governments affect the stringency of environmental policies (EP). We innovate on the literature along three dimensions: 1) we evaluate the spatial interactions across countries to assess the “interaction dividend” associated with international treaties; 2) we better examine how political and institutional variables shape
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Restrictions to civil liberties in a pandemic and satisfaction with democracy Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-29 Daniel Graeber, Lorenz Meister, Panu Poutvaara
In times of crises, democracies face the challenge of balancing effective interventions with civil liberties. This study examines German states’ responses during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the trade-off between civil liberties and public health. Using state-level variation in mobility restrictions, we employ a difference-in-differences design to show that stay-at-home orders
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One money, one voice? Evaluating ideological positions of euro area central banks Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-29 Martin Feldkircher, Paul Hofmarcher, Pierre L. Siklos
We provide new insights into the effectiveness of central bank communication in the euro area relying on a novel methodology. The time-varying text based ideal point model (TV-TBIP) is used focusing on two crucial topics communicated by central bankers, namely price stability and financial stability. The methodology permits identification of the ideological position of the speaker. We find that the
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Trust in a national anti-corruption agency: A survey experiment among citizens and experts Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-25 Benjamin Monnery, Alexandre Chirat
Are anti-corruption agencies able to secure public trust, promote public integrity and fight political corruption in the eyes of the general public? The paper investigates this question by focusing on France, which became a leader in the fight against corruption after the launch in 2013 of the High Authority for the Transparency in Public Life (HATVP). We run a survey experiment among 3000 citizens
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Globalization and fiscal policy after financial crises Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-25 Paraskevi K. Salamaliki
Has globalization affected the use of fiscal policy as a macroeconomic stabilization tool in response to financial crises? We study this question in an empirical model using different dimensions of globalization – political, social, and economic – and and measures of the different dimensions. By estimating Jordà (2005)-type local projections, we first document that higher political, social and economic
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Revisiting the relationship between economic freedom and development to account for statistical deception by autocratic regimes Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-25 Sean P. Alvarez, Vincent Geloso, Macy Scheck
The literature connecting economic freedom indexes to income levels and growth generally points in the direction of a positive association. In this paper, we argue that this finding is a conservative one as the data is biased against finding effects. The bias emerges as a result of the tendency of dictatorial regimes to overstate their GDP level. Dictatorships also tend to have lower scores of economic
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Political instability and economic growth: Causation and transmission Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-24 Maximilian W. Dirks, Torsten Schmidt
This paper examines the link between political instability and economic growth in 34 advanced economies from 1996 to 2020. First, we use a panel VAR estimated via the System GMM to explore the endogenous relationship between economic growth and political instability and identify transmission channels. Second, we employ an instrumental variable approach, exploiting temperature variation and spillover
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Predicting scandal Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Slade Mendenhall, Joshua Ingber
Despite its salience in modern politics, scandal has only recently been treated as a subject of inquiry in political economy. Most of the literature has focused on scandal’s effects on electoral outcomes, while a theoretical literature on endogenous scandal has offered predictions and hypotheses that remain largely untested. This paper uses an original dataset of U.S. Congressional scandals to test
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Geopolitical risks and business fluctuations in Europe: A sectorial analysis Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Fredj Jawadi, Philippe Rozin, Yacouba Gnegne, Abdoulkarim Idi Cheffou
Should Europe Really Worry about Geopolitical Risks? This study investigates the impact of geopolitical tensions and risks on the economies of the Euro area. In particular, we assess the reaction of key sectors (financial sector: stock market, exchange rate, inflation; energy sector: oil and gas; real sector: economic growth rate) with regard to geopolitical shocks over the period September 2003–March
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Fiscal rules and economic cycles: Quality (always) Matters Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-20 Leandro Andrián, Jorge Hirs-Garzon, Ivan Leonardo Urrea, Oscar Valencia
This paper investigates the role of fiscal rules in managing public debt, particularly focusing on their efficacy during different phases of economic cycles. Analyzing Balance, Expenditure, and Debt Fiscal Rules, the study finds that their impact on debt reduction is significantly influenced by the quality of the fiscal framework and the economic cycle phase. Moreover, factors like legal basis, procedural
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Black representation and the popular legitimacy of the Federal Reserve Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-19 Daniel McDowell, David A. Steinberg
The Federal Reserve has started paying closer attention to matters of race over the last decade. The central bank has increasingly emphasized the distinct economic challenges facing racial minorities, and its leadership has become more racially diverse. This paper applies theories of descriptive and substantive representation to understand how these shifts are likely to impact the popular legitimacy
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Information effects in public spending preferences: Evidence from survey experiment in Poland Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-13 Jakub Sawulski, Nikodem Szewczyk, Aneta Kiełczewska
We investigate whether the provision of information about the structure of public spending influences the public’s preferences in this regard. Using experimental data from a survey of 1800 Polish citizens, we uncover large misperceptions about the allocation of public spending. Respondents consistently underestimate the share of spending allocated to pensions, while overestimating the share allocated
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Electoral quotas and developmental outcomes: Evidence from India Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-04 Shampa Bhattacharjee, Arka Roy Chaudhuri
Electoral quotas for disadvantaged groups aim to promote social justice by ensuring that all groups, including those who are otherwise excluded, participate in the government’s policy-making process. In India, electoral quotas have been in existence since the first election in 1951. An important research question is to evaluate the effect of electoral quotas for disadvantaged groups on the developmental
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Equilibrium communication in political scandals Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-07-01 Bence Hamrak, Gabor Simonovits, Ferenc Szucs
We present a formal model in which elite communication and voters’ beliefs during a political scandal emerge as a communication equilibrium, determined by the severity of the accusations and the degree of media scrutiny. The prediction of our model is that incumbents’ use of denials can garner support even when they face the possibility of evidence showing their guilt. In contrast, public apologies
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(Mis-)Perceptions, information, and political polarization: A survey and a systematic literature review Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-06-26 Maria Marino, Roberto Iacono, Johanna Mollerstrom
Numerous studies have documented that misperceptions about society, e.g. related to inequality, are widespread among voters. Simultaneously, a separate body of literature demonstrates increasing political polarization. Against this background, it is intuitively appealing to hypothesize that information provision can be useful not only to correct misperceptions, but also to create a common ground that
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Broadband internet and attitudes toward migrants: Evidence from Spain Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-06-26 Marta Golin, Alessio Romarri
We examine the effect of broadband Internet penetration on attitudes toward immi-grants by combining survey data from Spain with information on the characteristics of the telephone infrastructure. To address endogeneity concerns, we use landlines penetration in 1996 as an instrument for broadband diffusion, and use data from both the pre- and post-Internet period to estimate a difference-in-difference
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Geopolitical shocks and commodity market dynamics: New evidence from the Russia-Ukraine conflict Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-06-21 Joshua Aizenman, Robert Lindahl, David Stenvall, Gazi Salah Uddin
We investigate the event-based geopolitical shocks from the Russian invasion of Ukraine on agricultural and energy commodities using daily event-based structural vector autoregression (SVAR). We find that the geopolitical shock affects the markets of wheat (2%), corn (1%), and European natural gas (7.5%). However, substantial heterogeneity is observed among the agricultural and energy markets. Geopolitical
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Voters’ influence on local tax policy Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-06-14 Maarten Allers, Harm Rienks
In a well-functioning democracy, citizens can influence public policy through voting. By voting prospectively, voters may aim to select politicians that make policies in line with their preferences, and, by voting retrospectively, they may reward or punish politicians for their performance. To what extent voters actually influence policy is unclear, especially in local government, where many impediments
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Corrigendum to “Defector politicians and economic growth: Evidence from India” [Eur. J. Polit. Econ. 79 (2023) 102442] Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-06-04 Karan Makkar
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Clearing the smog ceiling: The impact of women’s political empowerment on air quality in European regions Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-28 Vicente Rios, Izaskun Barba, Lisa Gianmoena, Pedro Pascual
This study explores the impact of female political empowerment on air quality outcomes. Women’s stronger environmental concerns and pro-environmental behaviors may lead to better air quality as they progressively break the glass ceiling in politics. To test this hypothesis, we employ a novel data set on regional air pollutant emissions and women’s political empowerment for a sample of 230 European
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The political economy of education: Politician criminality and higher education institutions Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-24 Rolly Kukreja
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Overestimation of social security payments reduces preferences for spending on social policy Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-23 Alexei Zakharov
We test the fiscal illusion hypothesis, which concerns whether an awareness of the government’s costs and benefits is linked to preferences for redistribution and social policy. We conduct an survey experiment in Russia—a country where many taxpayers are not aware of social security contributions that are paid by employers on their behalf. The treatment consists of a video with a calculation of the
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Populists and fiscal policy: The case of Poland Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-23 Maciej Wysocki, Cezary Wojcik, Andreas Freytag
The past decade has witnessed an increase in populist movements across the world. Some of those movements have gained strong political support and formed populist governments promising new sets of economic and fiscal policies. This raises the pertinent policy question: how do such populist governments influence fiscal policy outcomes? We approach this question by looking at the case of Poland which
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Reinforcing each other: How the combination of European and domestic reforms increased competition in liberalized industries Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-23 Tommaso Crescioli
There is a consensus over Europe’s transformation into a highly competitive economy through a series of ambitious pro-competition reforms. However, both the European Commission and national actors have legislative authority over competition policies. Thus, who are the critical actors behind this legislative and economic transformation in this multi-level system? Focusing on the liberalization of state-owned
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Priming attitudes toward immigrants: Implications for migration research and survey design Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-22 Patrick Dylong, Paul Setzepfand, Silke Uebelmesser
Using data from two representative population surveys with more than 3000 participants, we examine the effect of randomized priming interventions on attitudes toward immigrants and preferences for immigration policy. We document robust null effects of these interventions in two experimental settings, across two surveys, and for a range of specifications. Our results suggest that (economic) attitudes
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Beyond borders: Assessing the influence of Geopolitical tensions on sovereign risk dynamics Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-17 António Afonso, José Alves, Sofia Monteiro
We assess the impact of geopolitical risk and world uncertainty on the sovereign debt risk of 26 European Economies during the period 1984–2022, through the implementation of OLS-Fixed Effects regressions and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). We find that geopolitical tensions and global uncertainty in border countries contribute to the rise of European country's sovereign risk as measured by
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Social trust and the advanced aspects of social progress. Evidence for the European regions Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-15 Jesús Peiró-Palomino, Lisa Gianmoena, Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, Vicente Rios
Social trust is a deeply-rooted feature of society, whose positive impact on economic performance has been widely documented in many contexts. However, its impact on the non-economic aspects of social progress that characterize advanced societies, such as personal rights, freedom, tolerance and inclusion and access to advanced education is still understudied, especially at the subnational level. As
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Was Bolsonaro’s 2018 electoral victory an institutional accident? Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-05 Marcelo Veloso Maciel
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Unleashing potential: Model-based reform benchmarking for EU Member States Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-04 Philipp Pfeiffer, Janos Varga, Jan in 't Veld
Supply-side policies take centre stage in the EU's post-pandemic recovery plans. This paper employs a benchmarking approach to quantify the potential impact of structural reforms in the EU Member States. Based on a comprehensive collection of structural indicators and a rich endogenous growth model, we evaluate reforms in five policy areas: (i) market competition and regulation; (ii) taxation; (iii)
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Adopting the euro: A synthetic control approach Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-03 Ricardo Duque Gabriel, Ana Sofia Pessoa
We investigate whether joining the European Monetary Union and losing the ability to set monetary policy affected the economic growth of Eurozone countries. We use the synthetic control approach to create a counterfactual scenario for how each Eurozone country would have evolved without adopting the euro. We let this matching algorithm determine which combination of other developed economies best resembles
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Court-packing and judicial manipulation Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-05-02 Justin T. Callais, Gor Mkrtchian
Judicial independence is a fundamental pillar of a liberal democracy. In one of its most basic functions, judicial independence impedes the ability to engage in executive overreach. Judicial manipulation, particularly the infamous practice of court-packing, threatens this pillar. Court-packing and other forms of judicial manipulation can exacerbate executive corruption and worsen government accountability
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Risk preferences and refugee migration to Europe: An experimental analysis Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-04-29 Daniel Joël Elanga Mendogo, Géraldine Bocquého
Although the large majority of Syrians fleeing the civil war remain in neighbouring or nearby countries, others embark on hazardous land or sea crossings in pursuit of the uncertain prospect of obtaining refugee status in Europe. Understanding in what ways Syrian migrants who stay in nearby countries differ from those who seek asylum in Europe can help to better target European asylum policies. We
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Stock market spillovers of global risks and hedging opportunities Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-04-13 Evangelos Salachas, Georgios P. Kouretas, Nikiforos T. Laopodis, Prodromos Vlamis
In this paper, we shed light on the linkage between several global risks and stock market returns. We use a dataset including G7, BRICS, MENA, and SAHEL group countries for a period of more than 30 years. We explore the spillover effects on global stock markets fueled by geopolitical, climatic, and global health risks. We provide evidence of a significant negative impact of geopolitical shocks on stock
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Income, growth, and democracy looking for the main causal directions in the nexus Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-04-07 Martin Paldam
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Transitive delegation in social networks: Theory and experiment Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Sang-Hyun Kim
This paper presents a model of delegative democracy, wherein each voter has the choice to either directly vote or delegate their vote, along with any votes delegated to them, to another voter. I examine the incentives for delegation and how this affects the quality of collective decision-making. Specifically, by assuming the delegation network to be a ring network, I analyze symmetric Nash equilibria
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Governments manipulate official Statistics: Institutions matter Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Andre Briviba, Bruno Frey, Louis Moser, Sandro Bieri
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Don’t blame the government!? An assessment of debt forecast errors with a view to the EU Economic Governance Review Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Alena Bachleitner, Doris Prammer
In view of the increased importance of debt developments in the EU governance framework, this paper investigates the accuracy and the main economic causes of forecast errors in (government) debt projections. We find a positive average debt forecast error for European Union member states, which increases with the projection horizon. Underestimation of debt growth is particularly relevant for countries
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Economic freedom and the greenhouse gas Kuznets curve Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Christian Bjørnskov
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Will the real populists please stand up? A machine learning index of party populism Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Andrea Celico, Martin Rode, Ignacio Rodriguez-Carreño
The existing literature on populism has seen numerous attempts to empirically quantify this somewhat ambiguous concept. Despite notable advances, continuous measures of populism with a clear theoretical background and a considerable coverage are still hard to come by. This paper proposes a novel approach to measuring party populism by combining several different expert-surveys via supervised machine
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Contest and resource allocation: An experimental analysis of entitlement and self-selection effects Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Katarína Čellárová, Rostislav Staněk
Leaders who decide the allocation of resources are often chosen through contests. Due to imperfect monitoring, they often decide to allocate resources to themselves at the expense of others. This paper investigates how being selected in a contest affects such allocation through two channels: entitlement and self-selection effects. In our experiment, two players compete for the right to allocate resources
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Subnational public debt sustainability in Mexico: Is the new fiscal rule working? Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Ernesto del Castillo, René Cabral
In 1997, after a costly bailout, the central government of Mexico passed legislation intending to improve subnational finances through fiscal decentralization. As a result, many states rapidly began to accumulate debt during the following decade. Subnational public debt grew threefold between 1996 and 2006. The global financial crisis only aggravated the debt accumulation problem, which increased by
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Why do voters elect criminal politicians? Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Abhinav Khemka
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Discretion and public procurement outcomes in Europe* Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Bernard Hoekman, Bedri Kamil Onur Taş
Public procurement regulations aim to ensure the state minimizes contract award prices by specifying the processes to be used in issuing calls for tenders and award of contracts. Cost minimization goals may be complemented by ancillary objectives such as supporting small firms or disadvantaged groups. Recent theory suggests procurement regulations and practices constraining the ability to exercise
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“Whatever It Takes!” How tonality of TV-news affected government bond yield spreads during the European debt crisis Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Patrick Hirsch, Lars P. Feld, Ekkehard A. Köhler, Tobias Thomas
Were government bond risk premia affected by the media in addition to the effects of major events? Revisiting the European debt crisis, we analyze the role of television news in the rise and re-convergence of GIIPS bond spreads vis-à-vis Germany from 2007 to 2016. We use a dataset of more than one million human-coded news items from leading newscasts worldwide to identify over 25,000 news on the Eurozone
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Scarring effects of major economic downturns: The role of fiscal policy and government investment Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Martin Larch, Peter Claeys, Wouter van der Wielen
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Logistic hubs and support for radical-right populism: Evidence from Italy Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Liliana Cuccu, Nicola Pontarollo
Increasing discontent and the associated growing support for populist parties have been attributed to several drivers, including globalization, technological change, and migration waves. We analyse a phenomenon that encompasses a mix of economic and cultural grievances — the logistic revolution. The Italian logistics industry is characterized by a heavy reliance on low-paying and precarious contracts
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Social expenditure composition and inequality: A dynamic panel threshold analysis for OECD countries Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Pedro Bação, Joshua Duarte, Melissa Pereira, Marta Simoes
This paper studies the relationship between inequality and public social spending for an overall sample of 28 OECD countries spanning 1997 to 2017. We add to the literature by dissecting social expenditure according to nine programs and allowing for the existence of a non-linear relation in the context of a dynamic panel threshold model. The analysis reveals a positive contribution of old-age pensions
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Investing in friends: The role of geopolitical alignment in FDI flows Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Shekhar Aiyar, Davide Malacrino, Andrea F. Presbitero
Firms and policy makers are increasingly looking at friend-shoring to make supply chains less vulnerable to geopolitical tensions. We test whether these considerations are shaping FDI flows, using investment-level data on over 300,000 instances of greenfield FDI between 2003 and 2022. Estimates from a gravity model, which controls for standard push and pull factors, show an economically significant
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Procurement cartels and the fight against (outsider) bribing Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Roberto Burguet, Elisabetta Iossa, Giancarlo Spagnolo
We study the relationship between collusion and corruption in a stylized model of repeated procurement where the cost of reporting corrupt bureaucrats gives rise to a free riding problem. Cooperation among long-run (honest) firms alleviates free-riding in reporting. However, it also facilitates collusion in bidding by increasing the value of the collusive rent. In turn, bidding collusion facilitates
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Empowering the next generation: The role of direct democracy in youth enfranchisement Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-03 Anna Maria Koukal, Patricia Schafer, Reiner Eichenberger
When are voters willing to enfranchise a new group? In this paper, we analyze whether and how the extent of direct democracy affects the willingness of the electorate to extend suffrage to young people. We exploit a new municipality-level dataset from two Swiss federal referendums that concerned lowering the voting age from 20 to 18. Based on a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) design, we demonstrate
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Fiscal rules to the test: The impact of the Spanish expenditure rule Eur. J. Political Econ. (IF 2.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Ana Herrero-Alcalde, Javier Martín-Román, José Manuel Tránchez-Martín, Ignacio Moral-Arce
Despite the large spread of fiscal rules around the world, there is still not enough evidence of their effectiveness in ensuring fiscal sustainability. Furthermore, there is little evidence of the impact of expenditure rules in countries’ fiscal performance. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Spanish expenditure rule that has been in force since 2012 in controlling the growth of public expenditure