Stefan Krasa

About

Stefan Krasa is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. He serves as the Director of Doctoral Programs in Economics and holds additional campus affiliations as a Professor in the same department. His research areas include Microeconomics and Political Economy. Krasa has contributed to the field through numerous publications, focusing on topics such as leadership ability and agenda choice, demagogues and the economic fragility of democracies, personal power dynamics in bargaining, agenda-setter power dynamics in multi-issue bargaining, and political conflict over time. His work is published in reputable journals including Games and Economic Behavior, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, and the American Journal of Political Science. Krasa's research explores the strategic interactions and power dynamics within economic and political contexts, providing insights into decision-making processes and institutional stability.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Economics
• Law
• Public relations
• Physics
• Microeconomics
• Macroeconomics
• Monetary economics

Selected publications

• Social Ideology and Taxes in a Differentiated Candidates Framework

  American Economic Review · 2013-12-26 · 68 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Many observers argue that political polarization, particularly on social and cultural issues, has increased in the United States. How does this influence the political competition on economic issues? We analyze this question using a framework in which two officemotivated candidates differ in their fixed ideological position and choose a level of government spending to maximize their vote share. In equilibrium, candidates cater to a set of swing voters who contain socially conservative and econom…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Political Competition in Legislative Elections

  American Political Science Review · 2018-08-22 · 48 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We develop a theory of electoral competition in multidistrict legislative elections when nomination decisions are made by local policy-motivated party members, and voters care about both local and national positions. We show that the asymmetry generated by different national party positions reduces or even entirely removes the competitive pressure to nominate moderate candidates. The model has important implications for our understanding of policy divergence and, in particular, of the effects of…

  PublisherDOI

• Policy Divergence and Voter Polarization in a Structural Model of Elections

  The Journal of Law and Economics · 2014-02-01 · 44 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  One of the most widely discussed phenomena in American politics today is the perceived increasing partisan divide that splits the U.S. electorate. A contested question is whether this diagnosis is actually true and, if so, what the underlying cause might be. We propose a new method that simultaneously estimates voters’ preferences and parties’ positions on economic and cultural issues. We apply the model to U.S. presidential elections between 1972 and 2008. The model recovers candidates’ positio…

  PublisherDOI

• Demagogues and the Economic Fragility of Democracies

  American Economic Review · 2022 · 12 citations

  We investigate the susceptibility of democracies to demagogues, studying tensions between representatives who guard voters’ long-run interests and demagogues who cater to voters’ short-run desires. Parties propose consumption and investment. Voters base choices on current-period consumption and valence shocks. Younger/poorer economies and economically disadvantaged voters are attracted to the demagogue’s disinvestment policies, forcing farsighted representatives to mimic them. This electoral com…

  PublisherDOI

• Entrepreneurs, Risk Aversion and Firm Dynamics

  Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) · 2012-07-08 · 4 citations

  article
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Lech Krysiński

  Road and Bridge Research Institute

  116 shared

• E Kaufmann

  University of Siegen

  116 shared

• P Rama

  Argonne National Laboratory

  116 shared

• M. Bałkanski

  100 shared

• Jerry Guenther

  100 shared

• T Aiello

  100 shared

• J Williams

  Royal Marsden Hospital

  100 shared

• G Oare

  Advisory Board Company (United States)

  100 shared

Awards & honors

• David Kinley Lecture in Economics
• Kinkead Lecture in Economics

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• Anil K Berah-23