This paper studies the effects of campaign spending limits on the political entry, selection,
and behavior of local politicians in Brazil. We analyze a reform that limits campaign …

Participatory budgeting is described as a direct-democracy approach to resource allocation
decision making. Theories assume it changes how public resources are spent by moving …

We study electoral campaigns over the long run, through the lens of their spending. In
particular, we ask whether changing media technologies and electoral environments …

One strategy for promoting female leaders in science and technology professions is to
appoint more women to the committees that select leaders. Unfortunately, evidence from …

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 redefined race relations in the United States. Yet evidence on
its effect on Black office holding remains scant. Using novel data on Black elected officials …

Over the past quarter century, some of the most influential propositions about
democratization have been developed with the tools of rational choice and formal political …

The extension of voting rights epitomizes the construction of modern democracies. This
paper empirically investigates the effect of such an enfranchisement on political violence in …

This paper considers the consequences of England's 17th century dramatic expansion of
overseas trade for the persistence and turnover of political elites. I study the extent to …

This article develops a method for quantitatively tracking the agenda of the British
Parliament—by which I mean the substantive topics on which Parliamentary debate was …

Representation of women and minorities in a “selectorate”—the group that chooses an
organization's leaders—is a key mechanism for promoting diversity. We show that …