Electoral authoritarian regimes represent the modal type of political regimes in the developing world. To control electoral outcomes, such regimes may deploy a broad variety of repressive and manipulative measures. Despite their empirical as well as normative relevance, we possess…

This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the distribution at the household level of benefits from the Sistema de Protección Social en Salud (SPSS), or Seguro Popular, in its initial phase of operations. This health protection scheme was introduced in…

Over the past two decades, we have seen an impressive expansion of quantitative work in comparative politics. The expanding edifice of quantitative cross-national political research, however, rests upon incomplete as well as insecure foundations of cross-national data. Despite the incessant…

Do countries need a large menu of organizational forms? Does the flexibility of a larger organizational menu provide advantages for businesses? This paper explores these questions by studying the choice of organizational form in an underdeveloped civil law country undergoing…

How are committee leaders in legislatures chosen absent seniority norms? This paper argues that the prior political experience of legislators can serve as cues to caucus leaders to reduce adverse selection in a legislature where seniority cannot be the basis…

Procampo was launched in 1994 to help the transition from low productivity
activities to high productivity activities, among other policy objectives. We
investigate the effects of Procampo on migration flows from Mexico to third
countries (mainly the US), and the…

When President Felipe Calderón took office he declared a war on drug lords, thus initiating a war of attrition which has claimed more than 40,000 lives in the last 5 years. In this paper I document how this escalation of…

Studies of authoritarian nations rarely consider the role and activities of regional officials. They are usually assumed to be the involuntary agents of national rulers, or the unwitting victims of local demands for political change. Instead, I argue that regional…

Why do some terrorist groups cooperate with each other, while others attack each other? Terrorist groups frequently interact. Emerging research shows that these network relationships have important consequences, but it remains unclear why some terrorist groups form ties with other…

This essay examines the effect of Mexico’s security strategy and security situation on public opinion. Political and policy analysts are highly divided as to the merits of the Mexican government’s war against the nation’s drug cartels, with some seeing the…