Seminar 5: Controlling politicians (April 11)

Exercise 1 Theory

Solve exercises 1 and 2 from chapter 4 of Persson and Tabellini

Exercise 2 Regression discontinuity designs

1. What is a forcing variable in a regression discontinuity design? Explain the intuition behind and the computation of Willumsen's (2011) forcing variable.
2. What properties should there be among the forcing variable and
   1. The outcome of interest (say politician income)
   2. Other relevant variables (say politician age)
3. How can we test these properties?
4. What approaches can we use to test the causal effect of getting elected, and when do the differetn approaches work?

Exercise 3 Political conections

Solve Part Ib from the Exam 2012