Ok, I'll bite - mainly because the idea that accommodating the radical right on immigration is almost bound to work electorally seems to be rather popular among mainstream politicians.
Let me try to provide a basic overview of the party competition literature and, in doing so,

https://twitter.com/MartGuenzel/status/1862817120540606590

explain why there are good reasons to be sceptical about the claim that accommodation will reap electoral rewards. This doesn't mean that accommodation never works -- just that there is little reason to be as confident about its radical-right-dampening potential as many

RIP Walter Korpi -- one of the key figures in the development of the "power resources theory". Let me take this opportunity to connect some recent work in (labour) economics to this way of thinking about the welfare state and the political economy of redistribution.

https://twitter.com/GerardoMunck/status/1860609304761602049

Most (political) economists think about redistribution and the welfare state in terms of the Meltzer-Richard-Romer model (see 👇) for a summary of the demand- and supply-side assumptions. The famous macro-level prediction is that, as the right-ward skew of the income ...

@kyleichan has a very interesting post, arguing that -- because China is more dependent on the US than the other way around -- Trump's desire to ratchet up the trade war with China might work to the advantaged of the US. While I'm not qualified to assess high-capacity.com/p/beijing-brac… the overall argument, I think the post under-estimates the political costs that the first trade war engendered for Trump. Here are three interesting papers documenting these costs.
1. @fetzert , and Carlo Schwarz. 2021. ‘Tariffs and Politics: Evidence from Trump’s Trade Wars’.

Interesting podcast, which reminded me of this book chapter:
@benwansell and @jrgingrich. 2021. ‘The End of Human Capital Solidarity?’ In Who Gets What?: The New Politics of Insecurity, eds. Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Margaret Weir. 52–78. cambridge.org/core/books/abs… x.com/voxeu/status/1… I seem to remember that one of the authors did a thread on this when it came out, but I can't find it. In lieu of linking to thread, I'll post some of favourite passages from their chapter.
Their chapter is especially important against the backdrop of the flattening or even

It's the political selection stupid (at least in the US). The supply-side dynamics of US politics over the last ~40 years or so seem like an underrated factor in explaining elite-level polarisation and its downstream ramifications.

https://twitter.com/qjps_editors/status/1846993490967970034

Let me collect some explanations.
1. The cost of running for office have increased. Given these high opportunity costs (in terms of money and time), only wealthy people take the risk of running in elections, and even they rely heavily on campaign contributions. That is

Let me celebrate today's Nobel Prize for Acemoglu, Robinson, and Johnson by summarising the work of the first two laureates on the relationship between inequality and democratisation. In fact, AR kicked off the literature on redistributive theories of democratisation. 1/n Most summaries will focus on their contributions to the historical political economy of development, but their work on democratisation shouldn't go unmentioned today.
The synthesis of their work is presented in AR's "Economic Origins" book -- the

2/ncambridge.org/core/books/eco…

Interesting paper, which also raises deeper questions about the (unintended side) effects of the distributional ramifications of technocratic poliycmaking on politics. Let me sketch some thoughts.
To be clear: This is not suggest that central bank
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jo… independence is a bad idea. In fact, I believe trying to mitigate commitment problems via delegation is very important. If, however, that type of delegation engenders (regressive) distributional effects and voters cannot hold those that craft these policies accountable in

Den Tag der deutschen Einheit verstehe ich als Aufforderung,
- die historisch nahezu singuläre Leistung der ProtagonistInnen (in Ost u. West) der friedlichen Revolution zu würdigen,
- mir die durch die Wiedervereinigung gerissenen Wunden sowie deren Persistenz zu vergegenwärtigen, und
- indes nicht die Integrationserfolge aus den Augen zu verlieren.
Mein komparativer Kostenvorteil besteht in der (leider zu oberflaechlichen) Kenntnis von Teilen der sozialwissenschaftlichen Literatur. Ich hoffe dennoch, dass diese Arbeiten zu einer

The book by @CharlotteCavai1 that Marc mentions in his thread is required reading imo for anyone interested in comparative political economy. I'm not qualified to review the book, but would like to draw your attention to some especially interesting cambridge.org/gb/universityp… x.com/MarcHvidkjaer/… points.
Cavaillé defines "fairness reasoning as the thought process through which individuals reason as if a third-party judge ruling on the fairness of a given situation" (p. 32)
She then discusses 3 questions
1⃣ When does fairness matter relative to self-interest?

Immigration is back on the German political agenda. Here are some of my favourite academic works on the political and economic dynamics of immigration in Germany.
1. The book by @dhdannychoi, @MathiasPoertner, and Nicholas Sambanis is mightily
press.princeton.edu/books/paperbac… impressive, both empirically and substantively. Key lesson: It's the norms, stupid. See also the @scopeconditions episode with @dhdannychoi.

2. This interview with Christian Dustmann (@RF_Berlin) is definitely also worth a read. scopeconditionspodcast.com/episodes/dongh…
rfberlin.com/interview-dust…

In light of the debate about the extent of inequality in the US, I thought it might be helpful to summarise how political scientists think about the demand for and supply of redistribution. The literature is vast -- so this 🧵is intended only a bare-bones introduction. /1 For some empirical background, see this thread by @MortenStostad (though not every graph is uncontested). In general, inequality has risen in most advanced industrialised democracies since roughly the 1980s -- though the extent is debated.
Should we ... /2

https://x.com/MortenStostad/status/1780873004224045442

Ich möchte diesen Tweet von @kuhnmo – dem ich en gros zustimme – als Anlass nehmen, um einen kurzen Überblick über relevante Arbeiten aus der Ökonomie und Politikwissenschaft zu diesem Thema zu geben. Die Literatur zeigt, dass mehr Gesetze dann gut sein können, wenn sie ... /1

https://twitter.com/kuhnmo/status/1823644859971858638

dabei helfen, die unvollständigen Verträge, die Gesetze darstellen, zu vervollständigen. Was damit gemeint ist, fasse ich auf dieser Folie (👇) zusammen.
Wenn durch weitere Gesetze bzw. Novellen bestehender Gesetze Doppeldeutigkeiten beseitigt werden, wird die durch unvolls. /2

Seems like a good time to re-read some polsci classics.
1. This @JPolEcon piece by Barry Weingast and William Marshall.
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/26…

https://twitter.com/rSanti97/status/1824085193809965512

2. Diermeier, Daniel, and @rbmyerson. 1999. ‘Bicameralism and Its Consequences for the Internal Organization of Legislatures’. American Economic Review 89(5): 1182–96. aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…

The climate policy sequencing literature has spent much of the past five years or so rediscovering the insights by Dewatripont and @gerardrolanducb. This doesn’t devalue the contributions of the sequencing crowd, but it’s still extraordinary. A true modern classic.

https://twitter.com/edenhofer_jacob/status/1822973652779794460

Here are some references for those interested in the climate-related sequencing literature.
@jonasmeckling, Thomas Sterner, and @GernotWagner . 2017. ‘Policy Sequencing toward Decarbonization’. Nature Energy 2(12): 918–22. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Indeed - this seems to be an instance of autocratic learning. Fico and his cronies seem to have learned from Orbán that EU membership, including generous EU funds, are compatible with democratic backsliding and high FDI inflows, driven by multinationals. For more, see 👇

https://twitter.com/KimLaneLaw/status/1821244349331739087

Let me elaborate on 3 points.
1⃣How we got here and why this is an instance of autocratic diffusion

In the table below I summarise the literature on the strategies Orbán has employed to foster the consolidation of his regime. Many of these strategies are familiar to those

For those interested in serious economic and political analysis of the impact of immigration in the UK, see in particular the Deaton Review's relevant section (h/t @TheIFS). Some examples below. academic.oup.com/ooec/issue/3/S… Dustmann, Christian (@RF_Berlin), Yannis Kastis, and Ian Preston. 2024. ‘Inequality and Immigration’. Oxford Open Economics 3(Supplement_1): i453–73. doi:10.1093/ooec/odad052.

Programmatic accommodation of far-right challengers often entails rhetoric that erodes norms of civility and normalises far-right positions. This, a growing body of research shows, can help incite violence, especially with a "transmitter" as powerful as social media.

https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1819292282417250761

On normalisation:
Bursztyn, Leonardo, Georgy Egorov, and Stefano Fiorin. 2020. ‘From Extreme to Mainstream: The Erosion of Social Norms’. American Economic Review 110(11): 3522–48. aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…

The economic geography of the knowledge economy meets the political geography of a single-member district, plurality electoral system

https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1817713653832962182

See Jonathan Rodden's well-known book, though I'd also recommend ...
amazon.de/-/en/Jonathan-…

Happy to circulate a new @cage_warwick working paper, which is joint work with @fetzert and @Prashant_Garg_.
Using original data on high-street vacancies in England and Wales, we investigate the political ramifications of local decline. Brief summary 👇 Motivation & contribution
The literature on populism has produced robust evidence of a reduced-form causal between:
▶️local economic shocks and negative spatial externalities (crime, homelessness, mental distress)
▶️ lregional exposure to shocks and

https://x.com/fetzert/status/1788225132458094758

Interesting article. Ultimately, however, I think Wolf over-estimates the potential for citizens' assemblies (CAs) to redress the ills of representative democracy.
This is not to say that CAs are never a good idea. Instead, my tentative thoughts are is a call for more

https://twitter.com/martinwolf_/status/1815236841714372998

clearly specifying the scope conditions of pro-CA arguments.
As set out in this🧵, these arguments fall largely into four groups. Put succicntly:
1⃣ CAs result in greater congruence or improved responsiveness.

https://x.com/edenhofer_jacob/status/1759718263896879450

Foucault died 40 years ago. His work is not easy to read for someone trained in quantitative social science, but in a fascinating essay @ethanbdm draws on (among others) Foucault reflect on the "perils of quantification" in policy analysis.
bostonreview.net/forum_response… "In truth, the very notion of the “aims” of public policy is shaped in a deep way by the dictates of quantification. We don’t quantify because we are utilitarians. We are utilitarians because we quantify. Reflecting on similar themes, Michel Foucault perhaps put it best,