Research

Publications

Acting Green? Private Environmental Coalitions in the US

Business & Society, 65(1): 43-77. 2026.

Abstract: Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) have gained popularity in recent times as stakeholders strengthen pressure on private firms to address the climate crisis. In this article, I analyze a type of VEP with increasing importance within the private sector: environmental coalitions. Focusing on US publicly traded firms, I show that the firms that join a green coalition are greener than others and that they were also greener before becoming members. I apply a difference-in-differences design, using the fact that different firms became members at different points in time, and find no effect of membership on different measures of environmental performance. Why, then, do firms incur the costs of creating and maintaining these coalitions? I show that shareholder pressure, in particular from liberal and active individual shareholders, can explain this behavior. Taken together, the findings suggest that membership in a green coalition can be a tool for firms to signal their environmental credentials when faced with pressure from pro-environmental stakeholders.

Money and Cooperative Federalism: Evidence from EPA Civil Litigation (with Hye Young You)

Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, 41(3): 1110-1131. 2025.
Winner of the Deil S. Wright Award, APSA 2022.

Abstract: The federalism structure of the US government requires active cooperation from state governments to successfully enforce federal environmental regulations. What explains the variation in state governments’ participation in lawsuits against firms that are accused of violating major environmental statutes? We argue that firms’ political connections with state politicians affect a state government’s decision to join the litigation process. By constructing a novel dataset on the EPA’s civil cases and settlements for the period 1998–2021, we show that state environmental agencies are less likely to join the EPA in court when the defendant firms contributed to Republican state legislators. We do not find the same pattern when firms have connections with Democratic legislators. We present various mechanisms of how state politicians influence behaviors of state bureaucrats. Our findings highlight how state politics can be an avenue for firms to exert influence on federal environmental regulations.

Environmental Regulation, Regulatory Spillovers and Rent-Seeking

Public Choice, 202(1): 217-250. 2025.

Abstract: How do special interests react to an increase in their regulatory burden? In this paper, I use a shock to the regulatory environment by analyzing state-level enforcement of the Clean Air Act during the fracking boom. First, I show that fracking is associated with an increase in state regulatory activities for non-energy-related industries, generating regulatory spillovers to firms unrelated to fracking. Using the fact that fracking had regulatory spillovers to other industries, I use the presence of fracking as an instrument for environmental regulation for non-energy-related firms. I find that increased environmental enforcement is associated with an increase in state campaign contributions going to Republicans, and particularly to legislative races in competitive districts. These results provide some of the first evidence that changes in the regulatory environment can spur private sector mobilization with the potential to affect broader areas of policy through its electoral consequences.

Income and Social Trust in Latin America

Journal of Politics in Latin America, 15(1): 3-24. 2023. 

Abstract: How do economic conditions affect trust? In this paper, I analyze the effect of natural resource shocks on social trust in Latin American regions. To deal with the endogeneity between income and trust, I use an identification strategy that relies on the exogeneity of the international prices of commodities. I show that income shocks have a positive effect on social trust, a result that is robust to a number of checks. I present evidence that points to two mechanisms: increases in life satisfaction and a reduction in crime victimization. I do not find that inequality is moderating this effect nor that extractive commodities are detrimental to social trust. These results are consistent with the decline in social trust on the continent during the last decade of sluggish growth and economic turmoil.

Working Papers 

Presidential Rallies and Electoral Outcomes in Multiparty Systems: Evidence from Argentina (with Victoria Fernández)

Abstract: In an era of increased use of technology and digital campaigning, why do politicians still devote substantial resources to rallies and other in-person campaign events? We study Mauricio Macri’s Sí Se Puede (SSP) campaign in Argentina’s 2019 presidential election. Leveraging the country’s mandatory primaries for all eligible voters, we apply a difference-in-differences design with the same candidates within the same electoral cycle comparing changes across departments with and without direct SSP exposure. We find that departments hosting an SSP rally experienced larger gains in JxC vote share. We find no evidence of effects on turnout or on the vote share of the main opposition, Frente de Todos. Instead, the gains for JxC are mirrored by losses among minor parties. Using Google Trends data, we also show that SSP events increased local searches for Mauricio Macri, consistent with higher attention and information-seeking. These findings suggest that large campaign events can matter electorally and that large parties can use their resources and the attention they generate from demonstrations to benefit electorally at the expense of smaller parties in multiparty systems.

Globalization and Mainstream Electoral Erosion: Evidence from Gender-Segregated Voting in Chile (with Diego Weisman)

Abstract: Globalization shocks are widely studied as triggers of ideological realignment. We argue they can also erode the established coalitional structure of electoral competition before any realignment emerges. We define and operationalize mainstream electoral erosion as an intermediate stage with a precise  and distinguishable empirical signature. Combining Chile's 1996-2009 exposure to Chinese import competition with administrative returns from gender-segregated polling stations, we find that more exposed municipalities reduced support for both traditional post-transition coalitions, the Concertación and Alianza. Both blocs lost votes, support shifted to candidates outside the binominal-era coalitional order, and electoral concentration fell. Male and female voters responded similarly to the same local shock, even though the clearest effects originate in male-intensive industries. Latinobarómetro evidence shows lower trust in parties but no decline in support for democracy. The findings show that trade shocks can hollow out mainstream coalitions in an institutionalized party system well before national disruption becomes visible.

Work in Progress

Private Influence over Environmental Rulemaking (with Marco Di Giacomo)

State Legislators and the Uneven Enforcement of Federal Regulation

Does Civilian Oversight Reduce Police Killings? (with Santiago Cabral Spuri and Rosario Renato)