8 February: Giovanni Andreottola (QSMS Seminar)

Presenting “Polarization and Policy Design” at 16:00-17:30 in QA406.

On 8 February 2022, we have Giovanni Andreottola of University of Naples visiting us. He is going to give a seminar on “Polarization and Policy Design” at 16:00 in room A406 in Building Q, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, 1117 Budapest. Please help the organisers by registering in advance at egervari.zsuzsanna@gtk.bme.hu Registration is free. Event can only be attended with vaccination card.

Abstract: Voters in the U.S. and elsewhere have become highly polarized. How does this impact policymaking? We build a model to examine this question in the context of distributive politics and find that polarization can have a non-monotonic effect on equity. Political turnover and the inter-temporal resolution of policy uncertainty play key roles for this result. The implications of alternative electoral systems are also examined: contrary to conventional
wisdom, proportional systems may exacerbate partisan policymaking compared to majoritarian systems.