Formal Models of Policymaking and Elections

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together formal models on two topics in American politics: policymaking and elections. Together, the papers on the panel study factors that determine the types of policies that are passed, the considerations that determine the messages politicians convey to voters before elections, and the way voters form beliefs about candidates and their own preferences. The models illustrate how the decision to expend resources impacts the types of policies a legislature considers and passes, how voters’ cognitive biases affect the messages that politicians convey to voters, and how the process by which voters learn how their preferences relate to others’ preferences affects who turns out to vote and who donates to campaigns. The models also illustrate a pathway through which elections affect policymaking: parties may use the decision to repeal a policy passed by their opponent to signal competence. Together, the authors on the panel posit four new ways of thinking about topics of importance to American politics.

Sub Unit

• Division 4: Formal Political Theory

Individual Presentations

• Signaling Competence with Policy Replacement - Benjamin Shaver

• Learning Your Place - Amartya Bose, New York University

• Electoral Contests over Voter Beliefs - Alexander Evert, University of Chicago; Dan Alexander, University of Rochester

• Policy Development with Costly Consideration - Roel Bos, Princeton University

Chair

• Benjamin Shaver

Discussants

• Gleason Judd Princeton University

• Peter Bils