Objective This project will study political economics issues, that is, how public policies are influenced by political considerations. The emphasis is on the mass media's role in shaping government policies. A smaller part will also analyze how different political institutions and economic outcomes influence policy and the impact of extreme weather events. The project will mainly be empirical, using statistical methods with a focus on identifying causal effects, rather than correlations. The study of media effects will analyze the political impact of having a press actively covering politics. This is an important issue, largely unanswered because the presence of an active press is endogenous to things like corruption and voter information. We will address this question in the special case of media coverage of US Congressional elections. To identify the effect of news, we will use the fact that the amount of coverage is driven to a large extent by the coincidental match between media markets and congressional districts. We intend to analyze the effect of active press coverage on, (i) voter information, (ii) politicians actions, and (iii) federal funds per capita. The project will also investigate how political institutions and economic outcomes influences the health impacts (such as mortality among old and infants) of weather extremes. Historical weather data at a very detailed geographical level will be combined with socio-economic data in a panel (longitudinal) form. This is joint work with meteorologists who will construct historical weather data at fine grids across the globe. The part dealing with structural political economics aims to develop a framework for investigating the effects of institutions on economic policy. In existing work, there is a disconnect between the theoretical modelling and empirical applications. The aim is to close this gap. Fields of science social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiespublic policiessocial sciencessociologydemographymortalitysocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssocial sciencespolitical sciencespolitical transitionselectionssocial sciencessociologysocial issuescorruption Keywords mass media political economics public policy Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-SH1 - ERC Starting Grant - Individuals, institutions and markets Call for proposal ERC-2007-StG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET EU contribution € 799 945,00 Address UNIVERSITETSVAGEN 10 10691 Stockholm Sweden See on map Region Östra Sverige Stockholm Stockholms län Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Christina Lönnblad (Ms.) Principal investigator David Strömberg (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET Sweden EU contribution € 799 945,00 Address UNIVERSITETSVAGEN 10 10691 Stockholm See on map Region Östra Sverige Stockholm Stockholms län Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Christina Lönnblad (Ms.) Principal investigator David Strömberg (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data