This paper surveys the extensive literature that seeks to estimate the effect of the initiative
and referendum on public policy. The evidence on the referendum uniformly finds that …

A growing body of evidence indicates that local police departments are being used to
provide revenue for municipalities by imposing and collecting fees, fines, and asset …

Access to natural resources creates a political conflict between the expected economic
winners and their environmental opponents, but the effects of such conflict on policy and …

Over the last 15 years, the shale gas boom has transformed the US energy industry and
numerous local communities. Political representatives from fracking areas have become …

Researchers face a tradeoff when applying latent variable models to time-series, cross-
sectional data. Static models minimize bias but assume data are temporally independent …

How does the partisan composition of an electorate impact the policies adopted by an
elected representative? We take advantage of variation in the partisan composition of …

Empirical evidence and models of firm dynamics ascribe an important job creation role to
new businesses and a particular sensitivity of young firms to economic shocks. Studying the …

We show that firms anticipate information spillover from peers' investment decisions and
delay project exercise to learn from them. While this information improves project selection …

In the face of the intensifying global climate crisis, the US has failed to implement
comprehensive policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. During the 2000s, the shale …

Representation–and its failures–is a central concern of political economy scholars and
political activists. The literature is enormous and open to interpretation, but there is a …