I study a model of legislative policymaking with interest groups. To lobby, groups must have access. Access provides opportunities to lobby particular legislators when they control the agenda. In equilibrium, persistent access creates a tradeoff. It changes legislature-wide expectations, thereby affecting which policies pass today.
Blog
Gleason Judd: Access and Lobbying in Legislatures
Mica Sviatschi: Making a Gangster
Tuesday, Feb 26, 2019, 10:03 pm
This paper provides new evidence on how criminal skills exported from the US affect gang development in El Salvador and child migration to the US. In 1996, the US Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act drastically increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the members of large Salvadoran gangs that developed in Los Angeles...
Germán Gieczewski: Policy Persistence and Drift in Organizations
Tuesday, Dec 4, 2018, 11:23 pm
I analyze the evolution of organizations that allow free entry and exit of members, such as cities, trade unions, sports clubs and cooperatives. Current members choose a policy for the organization, but this, in turn, may lead to new agents joining or dissatisfied members leaving, yielding a new set of policymakers tomorrow.
Leeat Yariv: Affirmative Action in the Lab
Thursday, Oct 18, 2018, 7:50 pm
We present results from laboratory experiments studying the impacts of affirmative- action policies. We induce statistical discrimination in simple labor-market interactions between firms and workers. We then introduce affirmative-action policies that vary in the size and duration of a subsidy firms receive for hiring discriminated-against...
PE Students on the Market: Ted Enamorado
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2018, 11:29 am
Integrating information from multiple sources plays a key role in social science research.
Thomas Fujiwara: The Origins of Human Pro-Sociality
Friday, Aug 17, 2018, 3:08 pm
Human pro-sociality towards non-kin is ubiquitous and almost unique in the animal kingdom. It remains poorly understood, though a proliferation of theories has arisen to explain it. We present evidence from survey data and from laboratory treatment of experimental subjects that is consistent with a set of theories based on group level selection...
