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Technological advancements and the increasingly large amounts spent for elections have made it easier for get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns to contact potential voters many times prior to elections. However, the effects of repeated exposure to GOTV treatment have received little attention in the academic literature. Multiple treatments can increase the intensive margin of treatment—by increasing the number of times that treated individuals are exposed to the treatment—or the extensive margin of treatment—by increasing the number of people who are exposed to at least one treatment attempt. We analyze the differences between a treatment with one automated GOTV call and a treatment with three GOTV calls to isolate the effect of changes in the extensive and intensive margins of treatment on voting rates. On the intensive margin, we find that answering one additional call is associated with an approximately 0.6% point increased probability to vote. On the extensive margin, we find that answering one additional call is associated with an approximately one percentage point increased probability to vote. This evidence is consistent with the academic literature on commercial advertising, which finds that repeated exposures to commercial advertisements have diminishing marginal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Committee membership in mixed-member systems presents an informative setting for studying legislators' behavior under majoritarian vs. proportional electoral incentives. Committee membership allows for a determination as to whether legislators sort themselves into committees that are more consistent with an objective to win the next election in their electoral district, or more consistent with gaining a more prestigious position in their party. Using data from three large German states, we find that legislators elected in the electoral system's majoritarian tier more often become members of "district committees," i.e., committees that might give politicians greater opportunity than others to obtain government funds for the benefit of their home districts. This effect is strongest for legislators who won district elections by narrow margins. Moreover, we find that districts that are better represented on "district committees" receive more government funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Did the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima in March 2011 cause individuals to reappraise the risks they attach to nuclear power plants? We investigate the change in home prices in the U.S. after the Fukushima event to test the hypothesis that home prices in the proximity of power plants fell due to an updated nuclear risk perception. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we do not find evidence in support of the hypothesis that individuals reappraised the risks associated with nuclear power plants. According to our results home prices close to nuclear reactor sites did not fall relative to home prices at other locations in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In states with Certificate of Need (CON) laws, medical services providers must file an application and demonstrate community need before being permitted to start or expand a service. We examine CON laws for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography (PET) scanners to test the hypothesis that the approval process favors established incumbent hospitals over new hospital entrants and nonhospital providers. Using Medicare claims data in 2013, we find that states with CON laws have 20 to 33% fewer providers, depending on the type of scanners to which the laws apply. As a result, residents of CON law states are 3.4–5.3 percentage points more likely to travel outside their home county to obtain imaging services than residents of non-CON states. In addition, there is a notable shift in the type of provider: CON laws are associated with 27–53% fewer scans by nonhospital providers per beneficiary, 23 to 70% fewer by new hospitals, but 6 to 21% more scans in older hospitals. • States requiring imaging services certificate-of-need (CON) laws have affected the provider type composition of the market. • CON laws are correlated with reductions in services provided by new hospitals and non-hospitals but not by pre-existing hospitals. • CON state residency is related to a higher likelihood of traveling outside one's home county to obtaining imaging services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Altruistic punishment is a fundamental driver for cooperation in human interactions. In this paper, we expand our understanding of this form of pro-social behavior to help explain a puzzle of voting: why do individuals who are indifferent between two potential policy outcomes of an election participate when voting is costly? Using a simple voting experiment, we provide robust evidence that many voters are willing to engage in voting as a form of punishment, even when voting is costly and the voter has no monetary stake in the election outcome. In our sample, and in a robustness check through Monte Carlo simulation, we show that at least fourteen percent of individuals are willing to incur a cost to vote against candidates who broke their electoral promises, even when they have no pecuniary interest in the election outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]