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Giacomo Ponzetto
Giacomo Ponzetto is a Senior Researcher at CREI (Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional), Adjunct Professor at UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra ) and Affiliated Professor at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. He is also a Research Affiliate of IPEG (Institute of Political Economy and Governance) and of CEPR (Center for Economic and Policy Research). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2009. His research lies at the intersection of political economy and international and regional economics. He has written on political and legal institutions, political economy of trade policy, federalism and political centralisation, and entrepreneurship and spatial distribution of economic activity.
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Fundamental errors in the voting booth margins
Psychologists have long documented that we over-attribute people's actions to innate characteristics rather than to circumstances. This column shows that when we commit this ‘fundamental attribution error’ as voters; we over-ascribe politicians’ success to personal characteristics that merit re-election. Although this mistake can improve politicians’ incentives in ordinary times, the theory also explains lack of institutional reform and poor institutional choices, such as decreased demand for a free press and preferences for dictatorship.
