Irrelevant events affect voters' evaluations of government performance

Irrelevant events affect voters' evaluations of government performance.

Does information irrelevant to government performance affect voting behavior? If so, how does this help us understand the mechanisms underlying voters' retrospective assessments of candidates' performance in office? To precisely test for the effects of irrelevant information, we explore the electoral impact of local college football games just before an election, irrelevant events that governme...

Do Irrelevant Events Affect Voters’ Decisions? Evidence from the Field

Does information irrelevant to government performance affect voting behavior? If so, what light does this shed on our understanding of the mechanisms underlying retrospective voting? While recent studies have suggested examples of voters appearing to reward and punish incumbents for events outside of their direct control, these analyses suffer from a principal limitation: politicians may still ...

Government Policy with Time Inconsistent Voters

Behavioral economics presents a “paternalistic”rationale for benevolent government intervention. This paper presents a model of public debt where voters have self-control problems and attempt to commit by accumulating illiquid assets. We introduce politicians who may indulge/exploit voters’behavioral biases. Three main insights emerge: (i) Individuals’attempts to privately undo the consequences...

Integrity of scientific evaluations of government agencies.

Trends in Government Endorsed Security Product Evaluations

Government endorsed security product evaluations completed between 1984 and 1999 show a number of interesting trends. According to official lists maintained by the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, 242 products were evaluated since the first U.S. evaluations in 1984. The evaluations show trends in the number of evaluations performed, which evaluations are performed and where, what e...