Vincent Pons

@vinpons.bsky.social

Professor at Harvard Business School. Affiliate at NBER, CEPR, JPal. Cofounder at Explain. Column at Les Echos. Political economy, development, tech.

Democracy and business are often treated as separate domains. Instead, in a new piece for @mitsmr.bsky.social, Julie Battilana, Lakshmi Ramarajan, Matthew Lee and I argue that business leaders have a rational interest—not just a civic duty—in defending democracy. sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-...

Why Business Leaders Need to Champion Democracy

Many leaders are unsure about what they can do to oppose the global rise of authoritarianism. Here are four options.

sloanreview.mit.edu

Merci @alietteh.bsky.social pour son invitation cette semaine dans "Entendez-vous l'éco" sur @franceculture.fr! 👇 Que peut nous apprendre l’économie sur les élections? Peut-on penser la politique comme un marché? La main invisible y opère-t-elle? 🎧A écouter ici: www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Le marché du vote

Lorsqu'ils votent, les électeurs opèrent des arbitrages et expriment des attentes. Ces déterminants de vote sont au cœur des travaux de l'économiste Vincent Pons.

radiofrance.fr

Very happy to share our new paper on “The Global Incumbency Advantage”! 👇👇 We provide the first estimates of the incumbency advantage at the national level for all elections worldwide since 1945. with Raphaël Descamps, Ben Marx and @vincent-rollet.bsky.social. Short 🧵 below (1/n).

NBER@nber.org · 5mo ago

On average national election winners benefit from an incumbency advantage, but this effect is short-lived and differs markedly across contexts, from Raphaël Descamps, Benjamin Marx, @vinpons.bsky.social, and Vincent Rollet www.nber.org/papers/w34968

What explains the rise in geographic partisan segregation in the U.S.? While most studies focus on residential mobility, generational change and Democrats leaving their party explain a much larger share of that trend. See our @voxeu.org column 👇👇 and our paper: www.vincentpons.org/partisan-seg...

VoxEU @ CEPR@voxeu.org · 5mo ago

J Brown, @ryanenos.bsky.social, E Cantoni, @vinpons.bsky.social, & E Sartre find an increase in partisan segregation in the US even at very local levels. Generational change and Democrats leaving their party explain a large share of the rise of partisan segregation. cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky

Map of the United States showing that in states recording partisan affiliation, most counties fuel rising partisan segregation, with Democrats gaining strength on the urban coasts and Republicans in the rural heartland, Florida, and Maine.

Political polarisation has increased dramatically in the US in recent decades and is often linked to partisan geographic segregation. This column presents new evidence from 2008 to 2020 that reveals an increase in partisan segregation even at very local levels. However, while most studies focus on one explanatory factor, residential mobility, we find that generational change (in Democratic-trending areas) and Democrats leaving their party (in Republican-trending areas) explain a much larger share of the rise in partisan segregation.

Thrilled to see our paper on “Spending Limits, Public Funding, and Election Outcomes” published in the @jeeanews.bsky.social! 👇👇 We investigate the effects of far-reaching campaign finance rules, with Nikolaj Broberg and Clemence Tricaud. Short thread on what we do and find (1/n).

@jeeanews.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Forthcoming article "Spending Limits, Public Funding, and Election Outcomes" by Nikolaj Broberg @vinpons.bsky.social and Clemence Tricaud @eeanews.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeea...

🚨 New WP 🚨: All states monitor the political activity of their citizens. But who do they choose to surveil, and why? We study this question with the universe of Italian political surveillance files: 152,000 individuals born 1816–1932, across democracy and autocracy. 🧵 1/11

NBER@nber.org · 8mo ago

Studying the logic of state surveillance based on the universe of Italian files finds that states target educated and subaltern groups, with mobilization and radical change potential, from Gemma Dipoppa and Annalisa Pezone www.nber.org/papers/w34492

Thanks to @aeajournals.bsky.social for highlighting our August 2025 AER paper in their featured charts series! 👇👇 "Keep Your Enemies Closer: Strategic Platform Adjustments during US and French Elections" w/ R. Di Tella, R. Kotti and @clpennec.bsky.social

AEA Journals@aeajournals.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Political candidates systematically move toward the political center between the first and second rounds of an election, say researchers at Harvard and @hec.ca. Their findings help confirm the forces behind the median voter theorem. #econsky www.aeaweb.org/research/cha...