Satisfaction with democracy predicts democratic behaviors
Andrés Santos Vargas, Enrique Seira & Alberto Simpser
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(14) (2026)
Research
Articles & chapters
The impact of confounders, spillovers and interactions on social distancing policy effects estimates
José Ramón Enríquez, Horacio Larreguy & Alberto Simpser
Scientific Reports, 15: 34350 (2025)
Previously circulated as “Confounding, Spillovers and Interactions Influence Estimates of Social Distancing Policy Effects”
Corruption, Norms, and the Law
Alberto Simpser
Ménard and Shirley, eds., Handbook of New Institutional Economics · Springer Nature (2025)
Interacting as equals reduces partisan polarization in Mexico
Kenneth Greene, Erin Rossiter, Enrique Seira & Alberto Simpser
Nature Human Behaviour, 9: 147-155 (2024)
Recipient of the Best Paper Award, Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior Section, American Political Science Association.
Previously circulated as “Interacting as equals: How contact can promote tolerance among opposing partisans”
Mass Political Information on Social Media: Facebook Ads, Electorate Saturation, and Electoral Accountability in Mexico
José Ramón Enríquez, Horacio Larreguy, John Marshall & Alberto Simpser
Journal of the European Economic Association, 22(4): 1678-1722 (2024)
Previously circulated as “Online Political Information: Facebook Ads, Electorate Saturation, and Electoral Accountability in Mexico”
The Political Economy of Carbon Pricing: Lessons from the Mexican Carbon Tax Experience for the Mexican Cap-and-Trade System
Juan Carlos Belausteguigoitia, Vidal Romero & Alberto Simpser
Simone Lucatello, ed., Towards an Emissions Trading System in Mexico: Rationale, Governance, and Design Perspectives · Springer Nature (2022)
Voting with One’s Neighbors: Evidence from Migration within Mexico
Frederico Finan, Enrique Seira & Alberto Simpser
Journal of Public Economics, 202: 104495 (2021)
Do You Have COVID-19? How to Increase the Use of Contact Tracing Apps
Déborah Martínez V., Cristina Parilli, Ana María Rojas M., Carlos Scartascini & Alberto Simpser
PLoS ONE, 16(7): e0253490 (2021)
Let’s (Not) Get Together! The Role of Social Norms on Social Distancing during COVID-19
Carlos Scartascini, Déborah Martínez, Cristina Parilli & Alberto Simpser
PLoS ONE, 16(3): e0247454 (2021)
The Quality of Vote Tallies: Causes and Consequences
Cristian Challú, Enrique Seira & Alberto Simpser
American Political Science Review, 114(4): 1071-1085 (2020)
The Culture of Corruption Across Generations: An Empirical Study of Bribery Attitudes and Behavior
Alberto Simpser
Journal of Politics, 82(4): 1373-1389 (2020)
Recipient of the SAGE Best Paper Award, Comparative Politics Section, American Political Science Association.
Previously circulated as “Intergenerational Persistence of Attitudes towards Corruption”
Electoral Handouts During Mexico’s 2018 Elections
Kenneth Greene & Alberto Simpser
Política y Gobierno, 27(2) (2020)
Previously circulated as “Electoral Handouts and Electoral Integrity during Mexico’s 2018 Elections”
Circles of Trust: A Proposal for Better Migrant Screening
Tom Ginsburg & Alberto Simpser
Journal of Legal Studies, 47(S1): 229-245 (2018)
Dead but not Gone: Contemporary Legacies of Communism, Imperialism, and Authoritarianism
Dan Slater, Jason Wittenberg & Alberto Simpser
Annual Review of Political Science, 21: 419-439 (2018)
When the (Facebook) Status and the (Socioeconomic) Status Went down to the Street: Communications, Political Involvement and the Climate of Opinion in the Summer 2011 Protest
Jacob Shamir, Yossi David & Alberto Simpser
Megamot (2017)
Electoral Clientelism and Vote Buying in Mexico
Alberto Simpser · in Spanish
Ugalde and Hernández Quintana, eds., Fortalezas y Debilidades del Sistema Electoral Mexicano 1990-2015. Perspectiva Federal y Local · Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación e Integralia (2017)
The Political Economy of Social Spending in Local Government: A Study of the 3x1 Program in Mexico
Juan Fernando Ibarra, Lauren Duquette-Rury, José Antonio Hernández Company & Alberto Simpser
Latin American Research Review, 51(1): 62-83 (2016)
Electoral Manipulation as Bureaucratic Control
Scott Gehlbach & Alberto Simpser
American Journal of Political Science, 59(1): 212-224 (2015)
Does Electoral Manipulation Discourage Voter Turnout? Evidence from Mexico
Alberto Simpser
Journal of Politics, 74(3): 782-795 (2012)
Can International Election Monitoring Harm Governance?
Daniela Donno & Alberto Simpser
Journal of Politics, 74(2): 501-513 (2012)
Comparing the Accuracy of RDD Telephone Surveys and Internet Surveys Conducted with Probability and Non-Probability Samples
Jon Krosnick, and others & Alberto Simpser
Public Opinion Quarterly, 75(4): 709-747 (2011)
Unintended Consequences of Election Monitoring
Alberto Simpser
Michael Alvarez, Thad Hall, and Susan Hyde, eds., Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation · Brookings Institution Press (2008)
Books
Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes
Tom Ginsburg & Alberto Simpser
Cambridge University Press · Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy (2014)
Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections: Theory, Practice, and Implications
Alberto Simpser
Cambridge University Press · Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions (2013)
Work in progress
Promoting Civic Values at Scale: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Mexico
Enrique Seira & Alberto Simpser
Strengthening Accountability for Climate Change: Experimental evidence on interventions to encourage pro-climate political behaviors among Mexican citizens
Juan Carlos Belausteguigoitia, Vidal Romero & Alberto Simpser
Social Categorization
Karine Van der Straeten & Alberto Simpser
Accountability under Polarization
José Ramón Enríquez, Horacio Larreguy, John Marshall & Alberto Simpser
Estimating the effect of norms nudges: a study of pandemic mask wearing in Colombia
Déborah Martínez V., Ana María Rojas M., Carlos Scartascini & Alberto Simpser
Information, Trust, Engagement, and WhatsApp in Mexico and Latin America
Noam Lupu, Elizabeth Zechmeister & Alberto Simpser
Recipient of a WhatsApp Misinformation and Social Science Research Award.
Climate of Opinion as a Driver of Collective Action: Evidence from the 2011 Israeli Protest Movement
Yossi David, Jacob Shamir & Alberto Simpser
When do Sensitive Questions Elicit Truthful Answers? Theory and Evidence with Application to the RRT and List Experiment
Alberto Simpser
Donating Time for Democracy: A Field Experimental Study of Citizen Provision of Political Public Goods
Andrei Gomberg, Ulrike Malmendier, Enrique Seira & Alberto Simpser
Recipient of a J-PAL Governance Initiative Grant, 2016-2017.
Who Has a Use for the Law? A Theory of the Political Roots of the Rule of Law
Andrei Gomberg, César Martinelli & Alberto Simpser
Fraud is Not a Last Resort: Institutional Development and the Sequencing of Electoral Manipulation Tactics, with Evidence from Mexico
José Antonio Hernández Company & Alberto Simpser
The Political Origins of Subnational Authoritarianism
Juan Fernando Ibarra & Alberto Simpser
Other writing
How to Un-Rig an Election
Alberto Simpser
Journal of Democracy, 30(1): 172-175 (2019)
Election Rigging
Alberto Simpser
Fathali Moghaddam, ed., The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior (2017)
Review of Andreas Schedler, ed., Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition
Alberto Simpser
Perspectives on Politics, 6(2): 412-413 (2008)