Political Economy Commons^™

‘It’S Like Baking A Cake’: An Analysis Of Conscience Voting In The New Zealand House Of Representatives Since The Introduction Of The Mixed-Member Proportional System In 1996, Harrison Hosking

CMC Senior Theses

Conscience voting in the New Zealand House of Representatives offers a unique opportunity to assess Sam Peltzman’s ‘Principal-Agent Theory’ as outlined in his 1984 paper, Constituent Interest and Congressional Voting.

This thesis begins with a brief assessment of the principal-agent model (and other literature regarding parliamentary representation) before looking at the New Zealand Parliamentary system and the phenomenon of private member’s bills and how they aid the legislative process. This is followed by an exploration of a constructed dataset of conscience votes that have occurred since the inception of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system in 1996. An analysis …

Dropping The Ball: A Political And Economic Analysis Of Public Subsidization For Stadium Construction Projects, Max Fisher

CMC Senior Theses

The results generated by this research argue that the high cost of public subsidization does not outweigh the benefits associated with new stadiums. By using several cost-benefit analyses, my research adds to the current literature that these projects, while seemingly beneficial for communities, induces negligible or even negative outcomes. In particular, this study details the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Yankees, explaining how these teams were able to achieve a new stadium. To understand why politicians continually support stadium construction despite extensive literature showing its harms, this research includes explanations based on the political theory from authors such …