Social Science Job Candidate

This paper studies a dynamic model of electoral competition where two political actors compete for power over redistribution and over public employment/public good provision. Political actors have diverging preferences over redistribution, and they have an incentive to manipulate public employment because of its systematic effect on voters' induced political preferences. We investigate how the associated inefficiencies in platforms and implemented policies are affected by non-institutional and institutional factors. Among the former, more forward looking voters or more political persistence increase inefficiencies. Consensual constitutions, as opposed to majoritarian, are associated with less underprovision of public goods and more redistribution. Platform divergence is, in the long run, independent of the constitutional type. A mixed constitution dominates, from a utilitarian perspective, both majoritarian and consensual. Finally, the model's empirical implications on the relationship between inequality, redistribution, and political polarization are consistent with the available evidence.