Empirical Application PoliEcon

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course offers a general introduction to the type of questions and empirical methods used in the field of political economy. It focuses on how economic incentives affect the distribution of political power and how political forces ultimately determine critical economic variables. We will cover research on 1) The importance of the forms of government and the role of democratic transitions in economic outcomes; 2) Institutions, state capacity, and the role of bureaucracies on economic development; 3) Political and bureaucratic selection, electoral rules, discretion, and meritocracy; 4) The political economy of development, elections, clientelism, and vote buying; 5) Preferences of both politicians and voters and their relation to economic policy and inequality; 6) Money in politics: campaign financing, lobbying, interest groups, and the revolving door and, 7) The importance of the media and its incentives in democratic and non-democratic regimes. The emphasis of the class will be on the econometric techniques and data used to study questions on these issues, as well as on the potential policy implications of their results.