2023

IMF: International migration fund

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:45:41 +0000

IMF: International migration fund Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:45

By: Merih Angin, Albana Shehaj, Adrian J Shin

Abstract:

Existing models of international organizations focus on the strategic and commercial interests of major shareholders to explain why some countries secure better deals from international organizations. Focusing on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we argue that the Fund’s major shareholders pressure the IMF to minimize short-term adjustment costs in the borrowing country when they host a large number of the country’s nationals. Stringent loan packages often exacerbate short-term economic distress in the borrowing country, which in turn causes more people to migrate to countries where their co-ethnics reside. Analyzing all IMF programs from 1978 to 2014, we assess our hypothesis that IMF borrowers with larger diasporas in the major IMF shareholder countries tend to secure better arrangements from the IMF. Our findings show that when migration pressures on the G5 countries increase, borrowing countries receive larger loan disbursements and fewer conditions.

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Severing the Belt and Road: Overseas Chinese Networks and COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:44:34 +0000

Severing the Belt and Road: Overseas Chinese Networks and COVID-19 Travel Restrictions Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:44

Severing the Belt and Road: Overseas Chinese Networks and COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

By: Sung Eun Kim, Adrian J Shin, Yujeong Yang

Abstract:

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have imposed a wide variety of entry restrictions on international travel. Historical cases illustrate that public health concerns based on entrenched prejudices toward immigrant communities have led to restrictive measures against migration from foreign countries. Using our new dataset, COVID-19 Travel Restrictions and Categories, we examine whether Chinese migrant networks around the world have driven government decisions to bar the entry of Chinese nationals and travelers from China in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our survival analysis of China-specific travel restrictions from January to March 2020 shows that not all Chinese migrant networks were important determinants. We find that entry bans on travel from China emerged more quickly in countries where a large number of temporary Chinese migrants work in clustered sites of Chinese contracted projects.

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Fed Up: The Global Ascension of the Federal Reserve in the Era of Migration

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:42:00 +0000

Fed Up: The Global Ascension of the Federal Reserve in the Era of Migration Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:42

Fed Up: The Global Ascension of the Federal Reserve in the Era of Migration

By: Brendan J Connell, Adrian J Shin

Abstract:

In recent decades, the Federal Reserve has emerged as a global lender of last resort. In this article, we investigate whether the prospect of unwanted migration has driven lawmakers’ support for the Fed's increased international role. During an economic crisis, declines in investor confidence and capital flight to developed economies often cause economic hardship in the developing world, thus encouraging increased migration into advanced industrial economies. Concerned about voter opposition to increased immigration, immigration-averse policymakers of migrant-receiving states will seek ways to reduce the economic distress of migrant-sending states. To corroborate our argument, we analyze congressional voting on the “Audit the Fed” bills in the US House of Representatives from 2012 to 2015. Using the district-level foreign-born population as an indicator of migration pressure, our evidence suggests that anti-immigrant lawmakers are more likely to support the Federal Reserve's international initiatives when their districts face a disproportionately high level of migrant pressure.

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Financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping, 1990–2010: A new dataset

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:25:23 +0000

Financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping, 1990–2010: A new dataset Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:25

Financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping, 1990–2010: A new dataset

By: Timothy JA Passmore, Megan Shannon, Morgan Nadeau

Abstract:

Despite evidence that United Nations peacekeeping is a cost-effective tool for addressing civil and interstate conflict, it has consistently experienced financial shortfalls as member states neglect to pay their dues. To enable investigation into the dynamics of peacekeeping support, we present newly collected data on all member-state financial contributions to all UN peacekeeping operations from 1990 to 2010. The data also include dues assessed by the UN to gauge the extent to which states fall short of what they owe. We show that financial shortfalls are widespread and vary across both missions and contributors. The data offer opportunities to understand patterns of financial support for peacekeeping across states, missions, and time, and can ultimately provide insight into the factors that lead states to support international institutions and public goods. We illustrate how scholars can use the data with an analysis of the factors that drive states to meet their financial commitments. We find that wealthier states, those more engaged in global trade, democracies, and those that also contribute personnel to peacekeeping operations are the most likely to pay their dues. Conversely, the United States and countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia are more likely to shirk part or all of their financial obligations in a given year.

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What Happens When the States Regulate First? Analyzing Governance of the Telegraph Industry in the Antebellum United States

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:12:49 +0000

What Happens When the States Regulate First? Analyzing Governance of the Telegraph Industry in the Antebellum United States Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:12

What Happens When the States Regulate First? Analyzing Governance of the Telegraph Industry in the Antebellum United States

By: Srinivas C Parinandi

Abstract:

Studies of regulation in the United States often assume that the federal government has been the major initiator of regulatory behavior and that the emergence of a regulatory state has been a modern phenomenon. This view, to some degree, belies the experience of the US states, who engaged in regulatory behavior prior to the Civil War. In this paper, I utilize data on the adoption of telegraph regulation policies by the US states in the 1840s and 1850s (when the telegraph was new and cutting-edge technology) in an attempt to gain purchase on what explains the rise of regulatory behavior in an era considered to be largely devoid of such activity. Using pooled event history analysis to fully capture temporal and cross-sectional variation in state policy adoption activity and employing a bevy of explanatory variables across multiple empirical specifications, I find evidence suggesting that the emergence of mass public schooling corresponds with a greater likelihood of regulatory behavior. I argue that mass schooling (usually financed through public taxation) helped create legitimacy in the view that government should utilize policymaking power toward the public good, which furthered regulatory behavior. The result potentially sheds light on the emergence of the American regulatory state in the nineteenth century and may help us understand attempts to deprofessionalize American state government in the twenty-first century.

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Following in Footsteps or Marching Alone?: How Institutional Differences Influence Renewable Energy Policy

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:11:33 +0000

Following in Footsteps or Marching Alone?: How Institutional Differences Influence Renewable Energy Policy Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:11

Following in Footsteps or Marching Alone?: How Institutional Differences Influence Renewable Energy Policy

By: Srinivas Parinandi

Abstract:

In recent years, the federal government’s increasing inability to address major societal challenges has arguably hampered America’s commitment to renewable energy initiatives. Individual US states have stepped into this void and adopted their own policies, leading some to believe that the states can propel America’s renewable energy industry forward. However, we know little about how legislative and regulatory dynamics within America’s states might accelerate or hinder renewable energy policy creation. In Following in Footsteps or Marching Alone?, Srinivas Parinandi explores how states have devised their own novel policies, and how the political workings of legislatures and public utilities commissions have impacted state renewable energy policy design. Through the meticulous study of nearly three decades of state-level renewable energy policy-making, he finds that their creation is primarily driven by legislatures, and that ideologically liberal legislatures largely push the envelope. The book suggests that having a predominantly state-driven renewable energy effort can lead to uneven and patchwork-based policy development outcomes, and a possible solution is to try to more successfully federalize these issues. Parinandi urges readers, scholars, and policy practitioners to consider whether a state-led effort is adequate enough to handle the task of building momentum for renewable energy in one of the world’s largest electricity markets.

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Causal Effects of State-Level Proof of Vaccine Mandate Bans on COVID-19 Vaccination Behavior By Political Ideology

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:09:11 +0000

Causal Effects of State-Level Proof of Vaccine Mandate Bans on COVID-19 Vaccination Behavior By Political Ideology Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:09

Causal Effects of State-Level Proof of Vaccine Mandate Bans on COVID-19 Vaccination Behavior By Political Ideology

By: Deena Brosi, Glen Mays, Gregory Tung, Beth McManus, Srinivas Parinandi, Shannon Rossiter

Abstract:

To investigate the effect of proof-of-vaccine (POV) mandate bans on weekly, 1st-dose COVID-19 vaccinations at the county level. During the push for COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021, there were many areas across the country with significant portions of the population who were vaccine hesitant and skeptical of public health measures. This sentiment was frequently mirrored by state/local legislators and resulted in several states passing POV mandate bans, which prohibited local through federal government agencies from requiring patrons to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to receive services. While many studies have looked at the effect of vaccine mandates in the US and globally, no research has been conducted on the potential behavioral effects of these state-level POV mandate bans.

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Federal Slavery Legislation and Voting in US Gubernatorial Elections, 1840—1860

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:07:21 +0000

Federal Slavery Legislation and Voting in US Gubernatorial Elections, 1840—1860 Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:07

Federal Slavery Legislation and Voting in US Gubernatorial Elections, 1840—1860

By: Alexander Jensen, Madeline Mader, Srinivas C Parinandi, Anand Sokhey, Michael Byrd

Abstract:

The demise of the Whig Party in the 1850s has long been a subject of great attention among scholars and the general public. However, this historical development has received less attention from the vantage point of quantitative empirical analysis. Using state-level gubernatorial electoral returns from 1840 to 1860, we assess how major events like the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act/Compromise of 1850, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the rise of the Know Nothing Party influenced the transformation of America’s party system in the lead up to the Civil War. We find evidence linking the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act to a drop in support for Northern Whigs, Free Soilers, and (more suggestively) Northern Democrats. The results are consistent with a narrative of the Kansas-Nebraska Act unleashing fears among Free Soilers, ultimately leading to a coalescing around the new Republican Party.

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Theories of Institutions

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:12:56 +0000

Theories of Institutions Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 14:12

Theories of Institutions

By: CR Hinings, Joseph Jupille, James A Caporaso

Abstract:

This book has an ambitious goal—but not the one called for by some critics of institutional analysis in organization theory. The ambitious goal is to provide an overview, critique, and synthesis of institutional theories in the social sciences, particularly political science, sociology, and economics (organization theory is subsumed under sociology). However, the aim is not to provide an overarching theory of institutions or a critique of the field. Some scholars see institutional theory as uninhibited in its reach (Alvesson, Hallett and Spicer, 2019) and in need of more discipline and structure (see responses by Buchanan, 2020; Kraatz, 2020; Ocasio and Gai, 2020). What Jupille and Caporaso want is “engagement across disciplines, subfields and levels of expertise” (p. 1) and research, and they reveal this more eclectic position by not attempting to summarize and integrate definitions of institutions; instead, they provide their own: “intertemporal social arrangements that shape human relations in support of particular values” (p. 3). For Jupille and Caporaso, searching for a single, overarching definition is fruitless.

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Raising a politically engaged generation: when parental influence matters most

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:08:21 +0000

Raising a politically engaged generation: when parental influence matters most Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 14:08

Raising a politically engaged generation: when parental influence matters most

By: Pavel Bacovsky, Jennifer Fitzgerald

Abstract:

At what ages are young people most open to political influence? We test the “formative years” model that underscores the importance of childhood experiences for political development against the “impressionable years” model that asserts the primacy of lessons learned during adolescence. To assess the relative merits of these competing models, we develop a new analytical strategy: the Retrospective Family Context approach. We estimate the political engagement levels of 18-year-olds as a function of annual measures of their parents’ political engagement levels over the course of the prior decade. German household panel data analysis shows that parental cues sink in quite effectively during late childhood, ages 9 to 11, and during the late teens. These results illuminate an essential dimension of political development, and they can inform efforts to encourage young people’s political participation.

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