Essays on Political Economy

Abstract

This dissertation examines the drivers of increases in political polarization and populism in the U.S. in recent decades, using both experimental and observational data. The first essay examines the drivers of misperceptions held by both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S.: voters on both sides of the political spectrum hold exaggerated beliefs about the extremity of the attitudes held by both Democrats and Republicans, and such misperceptions are linked to higher levels of political engagement and affective polarization. I run a series of online experiments to understand the drivers of these misperceptions. The second essay studies changes in voting behavior resulting from the U.S. farm crisis in the 1980s. The third essay utilizes a large dataset of political advertising data to examine whether messaging in political advertising turns to non-policy-related issues when constituencies experience economic downturns: high unemployment rates, import competition, or exposure to industrial robots.