Publications
Recent Publications
Here are some selected papers, published since I was last promoted at Michigan State in June 2020.
'Multilateral Regime Change'. Journal of Public Economics, 205: 104562 (2022).
Blurb: A theory of multilateral conflict with ideologically motivated countries, with an application to the intervention in Afghanistan (2001-14).
"A measure of partisan advantage in redistricting." Election Law Journal, 21(1): 84-103 (2022). Online Appendix
Blurb: I introduce a simple measure of partisan fairness in redistricting maps. Easy reading, and data from 2012 to 2020.
Media: Science News, MSU Today, The Conversation.
"Implementation by vote-buying mechanisms", with D. Xefteris. American Economic Review, 111(9): 2811-28 (2021). Online Appendix.
Blurb: We characterize the class of choice correspondences that are implementable by vote-buying mechanisms.
You can find previous publications scrolling below or on my SSRN or Google Scholar profiles, and a complete list on my CV.
Early Career Publications
A selection of publications prior to June 2020, arranged by topic.
-On coalition formation and party formation:
'The Origin of Parties: Theory, and Evidence from the United States Congress 1789-1797', Economics & Politics, Vol. 25, N. 3, pages 313-334 (2013).
Blurb: A test of a theory of party formation based on party incentives to form voting blocs, with an application to the US Senate in the 1790s.
'A Spatial Theory of Party Formation', Economic Theory, Vol. 49, N. 3, pages 549-570 (2012).
Blurb: Legislators have incentives to form voting blocs. An equilibrium with two opposed voting blocs emerges.
'Voting Blocs, Party Discipline and Party Formation', Games and Economic Behavior, Vol. 73, N. 1, pages 111-135 (2011).
Blurb: A theory of party formation based on the incentives to form a voting bloc, with probabilistic preferences.
'Endogenous Parties in an Assembly', American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 55, N. 1, pages 16-26 (2011).
Blurb: My theory of party formation, in a more accessible version, and with a solution concept that is robust to coalitional deviations.
'United We Vote.' Journal of Public Economic Theory 9(4): 1-33 (2007).
-On voting and elections:
'Tactical Extremism', with F. Giovannoni. American Political Science Review, Vol. 113, N.1, pages 282-286 (2019). Supplementary Appendix
Blurb: An explanation of why and when mainstream political parties choose to embrace extreme policies.
Media: 'LSE USAPP blog'
'Citizen Candidates under Uncertainty.' Social Choice and Welfare 29(2): 317-331 (2007).
'Contested Elections in a Citizen Candidate Model.' Economics and Politics 18: 95-102 (2006).
-On utility theory:
'On the Spatial Representation of Preference Profiles', Economic Theory, Vol. 52, N. 1, pages 103-128 (2013).
Blurb: Commonly used quadratic Euclidean utilities with n>1 agents are characterized by three axioms: separability, single-peakedness, and something utterly implausible.
Reviewed by Mathematical Reviews. 'Review (pdf)'
'Foundations of Spatial Preferences', Journal of Mathematical Economics, Vol. 47, N. 2, pages 200-205 (2011).
Blurb: A class of Minkowski-like utility functions in m>1 dimensions (including Quadratic Euclidean) is characterized by separability and single-peakedness.
'Utility Representation of Risk Neutral Preferences in Multiple Dimensions.' Quarterly Journal of Political Science 4(4): 379-385 (2009).
-On public economics:
'Information and Targeted Spending', with A. Nicolò. Theoretical Economics, Vol 14, N. 2, pages 373-402 (2019). Supplementary Appendix
Blurb: An electoral theory of targeted public good provision with imperfectly informed voters.
'Cohesion, Insurance and Redistribution.' Quarterly Journal of Political Science 2(4): 287-305 (2007).
-On legislative bargaining:
'Slicing and Bundling', with O. Câmara. Journal of Politics, Vol. 79, N.4, pages 1460-1464 (2017).
Blurb: A theory of legislative agendas and policy-making, based on the idea that one can slice policies into smaller components.
'Legislative bargaining with endogenous rules' with K. Shepsle. Journal of Politics, Vol. 77, N.4, pages 1076-1088 (2015).
Blurb: A dynamic electoral theory of legislative bargaining with endogenous institutions.
-On game theory:
'Equilibrium Selection in Sequential Games with Imperfect Information', with A. Llorente-Saguer, R. Morton and A. Nicolò. Games and Economic Behavior, Vol. 109, pages 465-483 (2018).
Blurb: We propose an equilibrium selection criterion (to pick the one that holds for the largest set of beliefs). It works better than alternatives in experiments on vertical contracting and electoral competition.
-Reviewed by Mathematical Reviews. 'Review (pdf)'
-On discrimination:
'Discrimination and Assimilation at School'. Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 156, pages 48-58 (2017).
Blurb: A theory on the strategic incentives to assimilate and to discriminate against those trying to assimilate, which explains 'acting white' as an equilibrium outcome.
-On welfare economics:
'Social Welfare with Net Utilities', with D. Xefteris. Forthcoming, Special Issue in Honor of Ken Arrow, Public Choice.
Blurb: A preference relation over utility vectors satisfies a collection of desirable axioms if and only if it is representable by a function with a particular "sum of power functions" functional form.
-On financial markets and asset pricing:
'Asset Pricing and Asymmetric Reasoning', with E. Asparouhova, P. Bossaerts and B. Zame. Journal of Political Economy, Vol 123, N. 1, pages 66-122 (2015).
Blurb: Theory and experiments on asset trading with a mix of boundedly rational agents, some more rational, some more bounded, than others.