Paasha Mahdavi
Biographic Data
| ID | 4374887 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paasha Mahdavi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paasha |
| FAMILY NAME | Mahdavi |
| SIGNATURE | MAHDAVI P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3172-8478 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Fossil fuel subsidy reforms have become more fragile
Government efforts to reduce fossil fuel subsidies have failed at a very high rate
A network model of creditor coordination
Effects of per capita payments on governance
Examining the effect of cost information and framing on support for methane regulations in Europe
Methane abatement policies will play an important role in mitigating climate change given the high global-warming potential of methane compared to carbon dioxide. Yet evidence on public attitudes and support for methane regulations is lacking. In partnership with the Clean Air Task Force, we develop an original nationally representative survey of four European countries ( N = 5629) to show variation in public opinions about methane emissions and …
Why Do Governments Tax or Subsidize Fossil Fuels
Governments have long faced pressure to address the climate crisis by increasing taxes on fossil fuels. It is unclear how they have responded. Fossil fuel taxes and subsidies are hard to measure and often hidden in complex policy instruments. We collect and analyze an original high-frequency measure of gasoline taxes and subsidies, covering 157 countries. Our analysis yields three findings: despite rising alarm about climate change, from 2003 to …
Using Earnings Calls to Understand the Political Behavior of Major Polluters
The role that private actors play in accelerating or preventing progressive climate policy and true decarbonization is a core research interest of global environmental politics. Yet scholars have struggled to measure the political behavior of multinational firms due to lack of transparency about their activities and inconsistency in reporting requirements across jurisdictions. In this research note, we present a new data source—firms’ earnings ca…
Dynamics of the Inner Elite in Dictatorships
How does the circle of inner elites evolve over time in dictatorships? We draw on theories of authoritarian power-sharing to shed light on the evolution of politics in North Korea. Given challenges in collecting individual-level data in this context, we employ web-scraping techniques that capture inspection visits by the dictator as reported by state-run media to assemble network data on elite public co-occurrences. We test the durability of this…
Institutions and the “Resource Curse
While some resource-rich countries are highly corrupt, others have transparent and well-functioning governments. What explains this wide variation in so-called “resource-cursed” states? I show that these differences result from domestic institutional choices over how resource extraction is governed. Some governments grant procurement authority—the ability to award contracts for production rights—to state-owned enterprises, whereas others place th…
Scraping Public Co-Occurrences for Statistical Network Analysis of Political Elites
Collecting network information on political elites using conventional methods such as surveys and text records is challenging in authoritarian and/or conflict-ridden states. I introduce a data collection method for elite networks using scraping algorithms to capture public co-appearances at political and social events. Validity checks using existing data show the method effectively replicates interaction-based networks but not networks based on b…
Explaining the Oil Advantage
Why does natural resource wealth prolong incumbency? Using evidence from parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the author shows that natural resource revenues boost incumbent reelection rates because they are used to provide public or private goods to constituents, which incentivizes voters to reelect incumbents over challengers. To test this hypothesis, the author employs originally assembled data on five parliamentary electio…
Explaining the Oil Advantage
Why does natural resource wealth prolong incumbency? Using evidence from parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the author shows that natural resource revenues boost incumbent reelection rates because they are used to provide public or private goods to constituents, which incentivizes voters to reelect incumbents over challengers. To test this hypothesis, the author employs originally assembled data on five parliamentary electio…
Why Do Governments Tax or Subsidize Fossil Fuels
Governments have long faced pressure to address the climate crisis by increasing taxes on fossil fuels. It is unclear how they have responded. Fossil fuel taxes and subsidies are hard to measure and often hidden in complex policy instruments. We collect and analyze an original high-frequency measure of gasoline taxes and subsidies, covering 157 countries. Our analysis yields three findings: despite rising alarm about climate change, from 2003 to …
Institutions and the “Resource Curse
While some resource-rich countries are highly corrupt, others have transparent and well-functioning governments. What explains this wide variation in so-called “resource-cursed” states? I show that these differences result from domestic institutional choices over how resource extraction is governed. Some governments grant procurement authority—the ability to award contracts for production rights—to state-owned enterprises, whereas others place th…
Dynamics of the Inner Elite in Dictatorships
How does the circle of inner elites evolve over time in dictatorships? We draw on theories of authoritarian power-sharing to shed light on the evolution of politics in North Korea. Given challenges in collecting individual-level data in this context, we employ web-scraping techniques that capture inspection visits by the dictator as reported by state-run media to assemble network data on elite public co-occurrences. We test the durability of this…
Scraping Public Co-Occurrences for Statistical Network Analysis of Political Elites
Collecting network information on political elites using conventional methods such as surveys and text records is challenging in authoritarian and/or conflict-ridden states. I introduce a data collection method for elite networks using scraping algorithms to capture public co-appearances at political and social events. Validity checks using existing data show the method effectively replicates interaction-based networks but not networks based on b…
Effects of per capita payments on governance
Explaining the Oil Advantage
Why does natural resource wealth prolong incumbency? Using evidence from parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the author shows that natural resource revenues boost incumbent reelection rates because they are used to provide public or private goods to constituents, which incentivizes voters to reelect incumbents over challengers. To test this hypothesis, the author employs originally assembled data on five parliamentary electio…
Scraping Public Co-Occurrences for Statistical Network Analysis of Political Elites
Collecting network information on political elites using conventional methods such as surveys and text records is challenging in authoritarian and/or conflict-ridden states. I introduce a data collection method for elite networks using scraping algorithms to capture public co-appearances at political and social events. Validity checks using existing data show the method effectively replicates interaction-based networks but not networks based on b…
Dynamics of the Inner Elite in Dictatorships
How does the circle of inner elites evolve over time in dictatorships? We draw on theories of authoritarian power-sharing to shed light on the evolution of politics in North Korea. Given challenges in collecting individual-level data in this context, we employ web-scraping techniques that capture inspection visits by the dictator as reported by state-run media to assemble network data on elite public co-occurrences. We test the durability of this…
Institutions and the “Resource Curse
While some resource-rich countries are highly corrupt, others have transparent and well-functioning governments. What explains this wide variation in so-called “resource-cursed” states? I show that these differences result from domestic institutional choices over how resource extraction is governed. Some governments grant procurement authority—the ability to award contracts for production rights—to state-owned enterprises, whereas others place th…
Using Earnings Calls to Understand the Political Behavior of Major Polluters
The role that private actors play in accelerating or preventing progressive climate policy and true decarbonization is a core research interest of global environmental politics. Yet scholars have struggled to measure the political behavior of multinational firms due to lack of transparency about their activities and inconsistency in reporting requirements across jurisdictions. In this research note, we present a new data source—firms’ earnings ca…
Why Do Governments Tax or Subsidize Fossil Fuels
Governments have long faced pressure to address the climate crisis by increasing taxes on fossil fuels. It is unclear how they have responded. Fossil fuel taxes and subsidies are hard to measure and often hidden in complex policy instruments. We collect and analyze an original high-frequency measure of gasoline taxes and subsidies, covering 157 countries. Our analysis yields three findings: despite rising alarm about climate change, from 2003 to …
Examining the effect of cost information and framing on support for methane regulations in Europe
Methane abatement policies will play an important role in mitigating climate change given the high global-warming potential of methane compared to carbon dioxide. Yet evidence on public attitudes and support for methane regulations is lacking. In partnership with the Clean Air Task Force, we develop an original nationally representative survey of four European countries ( N = 5629) to show variation in public opinions about methane emissions and …
Effects of per capita payments on governance
Fossil fuel subsidy reforms have become more fragile
Government efforts to reduce fossil fuel subsidies have failed at a very high rate
A network model of creditor coordination
Economics (9 works) · Business (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Climate Change Policy and Economics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Market economy (4 works) · Natural resource economics (4 works) · Context (archaeology (3 works)