题   目：The  Senator Next Door: Depolarization through Peer Influence

嘉   宾：李波，副教授，清华大学五道口金融学院

主持人：喻洋，助理教授，上海交通大学安泰经济与管理学院

时   间：2022年11月24日（周四）11:30-13:00

地   点：腾讯会议（校内师生如需会议号和密码，请发邮件至yueqiwang@sjtu.edu.cn获取）

内容简介：

We  exploit exogenous variation in Senator and Representative seating locations to  find novel evidence of a potential counterbalance against polarization.  Namely, we find that exogenously assigned seating assignments of Senators and  Representatives have sizable impacts on the manner in which they craft  legislation. Seating on the Senate Chamber floor, and of House Members  offices, are done through pre-defined Seniority systems and lotteries. Thus, “freshmen”  Senators get last choice of open seats, and in particular the most “junior” by  their seniority rules is forcibly assigned to the last remaining opening  (removing any endogenous component of choice). Similarly, the “freshmen” House  class has a historically well-known official “lottery” for choosing offices,  with the last Representative again getting no choice by whom to sit. We use  these exogenously placed politicians over the last 30 years to show that their  choices and voting behavior are profoundly impacted by their ‘randomly  assigned’ neighboring legislators. For instance, a one standard deviation  increase in the percentage of randomly assigned ‘forced neighbors’ that vote  yes (or no) on a bill increases the probability of the exogenously placed  legislator of voting in that same direction – above and beyond party,  ideology, state-level and other motives - by 7 percentage points (t=6.47).  Stepping back, the fact that plausibly exogenous exposure to forced “random”  assignment and exposure to colleagues has such a large impact on Senator and  Representative consequential job-behavior in crafting legislation gives hope  that these effects can be used to combat distortions and other shocks which  might be forcing the legislative process away from efficient functioning.

演讲人简介：

Bo Li is an  Associate Professor of Finance at PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University.  Li’s primary research interests are in corporate finance, political economy,  and economic history. She has special interests in technology adoption and  talent allocation in emerging markets especially China, and in the interaction  between governments, institutions, and firms. Her recent research covers  emerging topics include anti-corruption, bankruptcy law, industrial policies,  and venture capital market particularly in China. Her research has been  published in various leading academic journals, such as the Review of Finance,  the Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting. Li holds a PhD in Economics from  Queen’s University, an MSc in Economics from the University of British  Columbia, a BA in Economics from the Western University.

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