You Get What You Pay For: Environmental Policy and Public Health

In this article, we examine the cumulative impact of state environmentalprotection policies and environmental quality on the healthof state residents in the United States. Using a series of pathanalytic models, we simultaneously analyze the effect of stateenvironmental policies on environmental pollution and healthoutcomes. Our results indicate that states with stronger environmentalprograms have lower levels of pollution and better public health.These results are robust across multiple measures and alternativemodel specifications. We also find some evidence that statesthat assume authority to implement federal environmental programshave worse health outcomes. Our findings suggest that overalllevels of public health may be affected by state choices withrespect to environmental policies and highlight the importanceof assessing programmatic consequences across policy areas.     

Tell Me Who Is Your Leader,and I Will Tell You Who You Are: Foreign Leaders’ Perceived Personality and Public Attitudes toward Their Countries and Citizenry

The increasing visibility of prominent political leaders in news media is well documented in political science literature. The main concern that has been raised in this connection is that the complexity of political processes is being reduced to achievements and standpoints of individual politicians, and the importance of rational opinion building is discounted. The results of the current study provide the first empirical evidence to account for the misgivings about emotional effects of personalized political information on media audiences. Using data from an online experiment, this study shows that news coverage regarding behaviors and personal characteristics of a foreign leader influences (a) evaluations of personal characteristics typical of his or her nation's citizens and (b) emotional perceptions of that leader's country (sentiment and respect). This effect is shown to reflect a psychological phenomenon whereby people project their emotions and perceptions regarding a leader's personal characteristics onto his or her country and people.     

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 rapidly spread across the globe, every government in the world has been forced to enact policies to slow the spread of the virus. While leaders often claim responses are based on the best available advice from scientists and public health experts, recent policy diffusion research suggests that countries are emulating the COVID-19 policies of their neighbors instead of responding to domestic conditions. Political and geographic considerations play a role in determining which countries imitate one another, but even among countries that are politically or geographically distant, nationalist regimes seem to favor certain approaches towards the pandemic. We investigate why this is the case by examining whether countries that embrace a nationalist ideology are more likely to emulate the COVID-19 policies of similarly nationalist regimes. We demonstrate that, even after controlling for domestic circumstances and linguistic, trade, geographic, and political connections, nationalist countries are emulating each other’s responses. These results are robust and shed light not only on new mechanisms of policy diffusion but also on the growing international cooperation of nationalist regimes and leaders.

     

Watching the Race: Where You Sit Affects What You See

States do seem to compete in making welfare policy. This competition,however, does not drive states inexorably toward a race to thebottom. Instead, this competition is a political rivalry ofthe kind that leads to unpredictable and unstable outcomes.This rivalry entails interstate learning and results in adaptation,but it stems from its political utility in appealing to votersand gaining personal recognition in the political arena     

"四个如何正确认识"笔谈社会主义一定要胜利--正确认识社会主义发展的历史进程

眼前匆匆而过的 20世纪，是世界社会主义运动掀起波澜壮阔、气势磅礴高潮，并且取得一个个辉煌胜利的世纪。同时，也是社会主义事业在一系列国家遭受严重挫折与困难，乃至出现东欧剧变、苏联解体，呈现出前所未有低潮的世纪。从高奏凯歌，胜利挺进，到风云变幻，屡屡受挫，潮起潮落，纷繁撩乱，这不能不引起人们感到迷惘和疑惑，更不能不引起一切认真坚定的共产党人努力运用马克思主义的立场、观点和方法对社会主义发展的历史进程，从理论与实践、历史与现实的结合中进行深入的反思和总结，以求对问题获得一个较为全面、科学的回答，从而更…     

GOTJ: Get Out the Juror

Serving on a jury is both a right and a legal obligation for democratic citizens; however, the response rate to jury summonses is low in most jurisdictions. In collaboration with the Riverside (CA) County Superior Court, we conducted a randomized control trial in which we mailed various postcard reminders to citizens who had recently received a summons. While we find that all postcard reminders were effective in improving yield compared to a no postcard condition, we find that “enforcement” postcards reminding citizens that they face fines or jail time for not appearing were more effective than plain reminders or reminders that serving on a jury is a civic duty. Enforcement postcard reminders had a substantially larger causal effect than what is typically found in get out the vote randomized studies. We find little evidence that norms regarding jury service response varies across distinct regions in our sample, defined by zipcode boundaries, nor are response rates conditioned on the demographic composition of these regions.