Essays in Political Economics

The last European election left us with a Pyrrhic victory of the EPP, but the greater triumph was collected by the several new anti-EU parties that have come to light. The growing discontent for the common currency has raised many question on the future of Europe. This paper explores what are the preferences of Italian politicians for Europe and for fiscal regulation. We employ a unique dataset: we have developed a survey among the Members of the Italian Parliament. Our results confirm the important role of party ideology on the preference formation, but also show there are individual characteristics that can influence the position towards Europe. The second chapter focuses on Campaign advertising. Spending increases the visibility of a candidate and helps voters in doing more informed voting decisions. We argue that the impact of money on electoral outcomes in PR, open list system is higher than in first pass the post system since for voters its easier to switch preferences among candidates of the same coalition. We present an empirical analysis on Italian regional elections. We collect an original dataset on campaign contributions of Lombardy's regional council. Campaign spending has a strong and significant correlation with the number of preference votes, however, the impact is decreasing. We suggest that a reform to lower spending limits could mitigate the incumbent advantage.