Essays in informational political economy

In this dissertation I study the strategic interactions between politicians, organized interest groups, and citizens, in democratic and non-democratic settings. All chapters focus on the citizens' problem of learning about the performance of their elected official, or of the current autocrat. In chapter 1, I evaluate the role of lobbying transparency laws in helping voters hold their politicians accountable and control the influence on policy-making by special interest groups. In chapter 2, I consider the problem of censorship in the internet-era for modern dictators. I argue that the internet may have entrenched authoritarian regimes because it gave more choice to citizens, thus making feasible a novel form of segmented access to information. In chapter 3, I contend that the existence of purely informational censorship incentives for authoritarian leaders hinges on the distribution of political preferences.