Nature's choice? a study of the displacement of incumbents in elections

How do economic shocks affect the behaviour of elections in democracies? Using U.S. Congress electoral data, I test whether sudden shocks affect unequally incumbent par- ties and opponents. This is identified through, among other procedures, a regression discontinuity design. I consider possible the...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Canen, Nathan Joseph
Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:Brasil
Institución:Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional do FGV (FGV Repositório Digital)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/10937
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10438/10937
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Regression discontinuity
Incomplete information
Incumbency
Regressão em descontinuidade
Efeitos de incumbência
Informação incompleta
Economia
Eleições - Modelos econômicos
Descripción
Sumario:How do economic shocks affect the behaviour of elections in democracies? Using U.S. Congress electoral data, I test whether sudden shocks affect unequally incumbent par- ties and opponents. This is identified through, among other procedures, a regression discontinuity design. I consider possible theoretical channels for this effect, where cit- izens cannot perfectly observe whether their lack of public goods is due to an adverse shock, or due to private consumption by a politician. I find that, with observable shocks close to the election, there is no effect. Empirical evidence is consistent with the theory.