Data and Paper Repositories

Copies of many of my papers are available at the ungated Social Science Research Network (SSRN) repository here

How the US Electoral Cycle Affects Elections Around the World

We probe whether foreign elections held close to US elections feature more bias.  We use a game to demonstrate that greater monitoring costs - due to domestic distractions - result in more cheating by foreign incumbents in equilibrium.  Foreign incumbents, however, have no incentive to adjust their election cycle to match the US one.  This sugge

What's in a Proper Name?

International relations research is animated by the notion that leaders matter.  Existing approaches rely on proxies such as regime type to infer the importance of individuals. We propose a new measure, one based on leader mentions relative to country mentions in the relevant text.

Endogenous Origin of Polarization

NSF Grant: Fixing the Horse-Race

with Dov Levin, filed August 17, 2020

Overview:

NSF Grant

Marinov and Jordan Tama (AU) are applying for a three-year grant to the NSF.  

The Crafting of American Economic Sanctions: U.S. Statements and Actions on Sanctions, Computer-Assisted-Text Approach (US SASCAT) 

Overview

DFG Grant

I am a cooperating partner in one grant proposal under review with the German Science Foundation (DFG), filed on August 2nd, 2019, Conspiracy Theories as a Strategy of Political Communication: A Comparative Study of Modern Propaganda - Verschwörungstheorien als Strategien politischer Kommunikation: Eine vergleichende Studie mode

Why Congress Grants Executive Discretion on Economic Sanctions

In July 2019, Turkey began receiving shipments of an advanced missile system from a Russian entity on a sanctions list kept by the U.S. Secretary of State. The creation of this list was mandated by a law enacted by the U.S. Congress to isolate Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

How Hybrid Regimes Use Propaganda

We identify and theorize a new kind of election intervention, by hybrid regimes, in democracies,  arising from state-to-state political communication.  We argue that instabilities inherent in hybrid regimes cause them to generate a specific type for propaganda for domestic use, one emphasizing illiberal tenets and principles.  This discourse is

Political Elites and the `War on Truth'

Under what conditions do self-serving political elites  choose to promote conspiracy theories?  We build on existing insights, which maintain that conspiracies promote withdrawal and skepticism among voters, to argue that conspiracy-pandering is one strategy for altering the information environment of the public.  We build a formal model in whic