Essays in informational political economy

Zerbini, Antoine (2024) Essays in informational political economy. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

In this dissertation I study the strategic interactions between politicians, organized interest groups, and citizens, in democratic and non-democratic settings. All chapters focus on the citizens' problem of learning about the performance of their elected official, or of the current autocrat. In chapter 1, I evaluate the role of lobbying transparency laws in helping voters hold their politicians accountable and control the influence on policy-making by special interest groups. In chapter 2, I consider the problem of censorship in the internet-era for modern dictators. I argue that the internet may have entrenched authoritarian regimes because it gave more choice to citizens, thus making feasible a novel form of segmented access to information. In chapter 3, I contend that the existence of purely informational censorship incentives for authoritarian leaders hinges on the distribution of political preferences.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Antoine Zerbini
Library of Congress subject classification:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Sets:	Departments > Government
Supervisor:	Dewan, Torun and Levy, Gilat
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4738

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