Carolina Seminar with Guzel Garifullina

Popular elections in Russia have often been replaced by some forms of indirect elections or appointments at both regional and municipal level. Scholars have studied various effects such institutional changes have on the characteristics of political leaders. Guzel Garifullina builds a theory connecting leader selection institutions with political ambition and explores whether the observed changes lead to self-selection of more risk-seeking or more risk-averse individuals into candidacy. She tests the theory in a laboratory experiment staged in Russia.