Laurent Bouton

Boston University  
Department of Economics  
270 Bay State Road  
Boston, MA 02215  
   
Phone: +1 (617) 353 4140  
Cell phone: +1 (617) 650 5693  
E-mail: lbouton@bu.edu  
   
   
Curriculum Vitae [pdf]

Academic Positions

2009- Present

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Boston University

Fall 2011

Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University

Education

2006-2009 Ph.D. in Economics, ECARES, Université libre de Bruxelles
Spring 2008 Pre-Doctoral Fellow of the Program on Political Institutions, Harris School, University of Chicago
2004-2006  Master Degree in Economics, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium - Magna Cum Laude
2000-2004 Licence Degree in Economics, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium - Summa Cum Laude

Research

My main fields of interest are political economy, microeconomics, and public economics.

Publications

1. One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation (with Micael Castanheira), Econometrica, 80(1), 2012, pp. 43-87 [Working Paper Version] (see also CEPR Discussion Paper 6695)

2. Redistributing Income under Fiscal Vertical Imbalance (with Marjorie Gassner and Vincenzo Verardi), European Journal of Political Economy, 24(2), 2008, pp. 317-328

3. The Condorcet-Duverger Trade-Off: Swing Voters and Voting Equilibria (with Micael Castanheira), in Aragonés, E., Beviá, C., Llavador, H., Schofield, N., Eds., The Political Economy of Democracy, 2009, fundacion BBVA, Spain

4. Le fédéralisme budgétaire, in Valenduc, C., Ed., L’impôt et la politique fiscale en Belgique, 2011, Collection Economie, Brussels : Editions de l’ULB

Working Papers

1. A Theory of Strategic Voting in Runoff Elections - R&R at the American Economic Review [updated version March 2010]

2. Good Rankings are Bad - Why Reliable Rankings can Hurt Consumers (with Georg Kirchsteiger) [updated version October 2011]

Work in Progress

1. Divided Majority and Information Aggregation: a Laboratory Experiment (with Micael Castanheira, Aniol Llorente-Saguer, and Jean-Benoit Pilet)

2. Runoff Elections: Sincere Voting, Push-Over and the Vote Against (with Gabriele Gratton)

3. Information Aggregation and Veto Power (with Frederic Malherbe)

4. Strategic Voting in Instant-Runoff Elections (with Micael Castanheira)

Teaching

Fall 2011 Political Economy and Collective Choice (Graduate), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Formal Political Theory (Graduate), Harvard University
2009-2011 Advanced Microeconomic Theory (Graduate), Boston University (co-taught with Bart Lipman)
  Government, Business and Labor (Undergraduate), Boston University
2009-2011 Public Finance (Graduate), Boston University (co-taught with Christophe Chamley)
2007-2009 Teaching assistant for M. Dewatripont: Advanced Microeconomics, Université libre de Bruxelles
2004-2009 Teaching assistant for F. Thys-Clément: Advanced Public Economics, Université libre de Bruxelles
2003-2004 Teaching assistant for R. Plasman: Introductory Economics, Université libre de Bruxelles
2002-2004 Teaching assistant for G. Mélard: Computer Science, Université libre de Bruxelles