Research
Research
Working Papers
"Flip-flopping and Endogenous Turnout" [Submitted]
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between candidates’ ideological consistency and electoral participation. I consider an electoral competition model where candidates can strategically adjust their platform to attract voters and potentially improve their vote share, a strategy known as flip-flopping. However citizens have an intrinsic preference for consistent candidates, and abstain when their utility for their preferred candidate falls below a common threshold. I show how this threshold shapes candidates’ flip-flopping strategy. When citizens are reluctant to vote, there is no flip-flopping at equilibrium. When citizens are inclined to vote, candidates flip-flop toward the center of the policy space. Surprisingly, I find that high-turnout elections are associated with more flip-flopping, despite voters’ preference for consistent candidates. Finally, I find that candidates tend to polarize when they maximize their number of votes instead of their vote share.
Presentations: RGS Doctoral Conference, AMSE PhD Seminar, MicroLab Seminar (UAB), Mediterranean Game Theory Symposium 2024, CEAFE/MWET, PET 2024, LAGV 2024, SSCW 2024, SING19.
"Allocating Communication Time in Electoral Competition" (with G. Fournier)
Abstract: Political campaigns influence how voters prioritize issues, which in turn impacts electoral outcomes. In this paper, we study the strategic incentives driving candidates to emphasize specific issues, determining when and why a topic dominates the campaign. We model an electoral competition between two office-motivated candidates and derive a general measure of the issue-specific advantages that candidates can hold, based on their platforms and characteristics. We show that candidates face conflicting incentives: while they wish to emphasize their comparative advantage, an advantaged candidate seeks to broaden the campaign to solidify his lead, whereas the disadvantaged candidate attempts to narrow the electoral discourse. Consequently, we find that campaigns can be unbalanced and in extreme cases, be reduced to a single dimension.
Presentations: AMSE PhD Seminar, AFSE 73rd Congress, PET 2025, LAGV 2025, IHP's Junior Game Theory Seminar.
Work in Progress
"Political Involvement and Parental Transmission"
Presentations: AMSE PhD Seminar, Oxford Student Research Workshop in Micro Theory*, CREST PhD Seminar*.
*: scheduled