Essays in political economy and public economics ; Essais en économie politique et publique

Open Access

Abstract

This dissertation lies at the intersection of Political Economy and Public Economics. It combines quasi-experimental designs with administrative data to understand the determinants and consequences of citizen and policymaker behavior.The first two chapters, in collaboration with Vincent Pons, study the behavior of voters in elections. In Chapter 1, we assess the extent to which voters behave expressively or strategically and the consequences it has on electoral results. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD) around the qualification threshold for the runoff of two-round elections in France, we compare electoral results when two or three candidates compete. We find that a third candidate's presence substantially increases participation and reduces the vote share of the top two candidates. Crucially, in about 1/5 of the elections, the presence of a third candidate causes the loss of the candidate among the top two that is ideologically closest to her. Hence, we show that the plurality rule often leads to suboptimal outcomes, because many voters value voting expressively over voting strategically.Chapter 2 investigates which type of information affects voter and candidate behavior, focusing on one specific piece of information: candidate rankings. Building on the data collected for the first project and digitizing electoral results for older elections, we isolate the impact of first-round rankings on second-round outcomes. We use an RDD in French local and parliamentary elections, where up to three or four candidates can qualify for the second round. Results show that arriving marginally first, second, or third in the first round has large effects on a candidate's likelihood of running and winning in the second round. These results remain strong even when only two candidates qualify (and thus there is no need for coordination), suggesting that the desire to vote for the winner is an important driver of voter behavior.Chapter 3 studies the behavior of policymakers and seeks to understand mayors' reluctance to ...