Previous research has highlighted referee bias as a potential contributor to home field advantage in soccer. We exploit the staggered implementation of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) using data from the top domestic league in 16 countries between 2009 and 2019 to estimate the effect of objective review systems on home field advantage. Surprisingly, VAR had negligible effects on home field advantage and various crucial match statistics despite decreased total offsides and yellow cards. These results provide suggestive evidence regarding the mechanisms through which referee bias might contribute to home field advantage and highlight how scope may limit the effectiveness of review processes in general.

This paper documents a persistent and counterintuitive electoral pattern in Paraguay: in every national election since the early 1990s, the Colorado Party's presidential candidate consistently outperforms the party's own Senate list. Using disaggregated data from Paraguay's 258 electoral districts for the 2013 and 2018 general elections, we show that split-ticket voting is more pronounced in larger, more urban, and less poor districts, and that the pattern is stable across election cycles.

This paper presents causal evidence on the effects of intergovernmental transfers on local government finances in Paraguay. Using census-driven variation in expected transfers, municipalities facing a 15% or greater decrease in transfers increased their own tax revenues by 14%, while those receiving a 15% or greater increase reduced tax revenues by 28%. Beyond fiscal outcomes, the paper documents an 8% increase in night lights radiance in high-transfer municipalities, as well as lower voter turnout in both national and mayoral elections.

Using a Regression Discontinuity Design on Paraguayan municipal elections (2001-2021), we document that the average incumbency advantage is statistically indistinguishable from zero. This null result masks a sharp partisan asymmetry: the hegemonic Colorado Party gains a positive incumbency dividend, while opposition parties suffer a systematic incumbency penalty. We attribute this divergence to organizational structure: the ANR leverages a unitary party machine, while opposition forces rely on fragile electoral coalitions that make holding office a liability.

This paper analyzes how Paraguay's 2023 elimination of party-list proportional representation reshaped the Colorado Party's electoral performance in senatorial races. We document that a previously observed positive association between social programs and split-ticket voting largely vanished following the reform, and that the ANR's senatorial vote share converged with its presidential vote share.

Using the staggered implementation of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology as a source of quasi-random variation, this paper analyzes the effects of increased scrutiny on players' violent behavior in soccer. Using minute-by-minute player-level data from the top 5 European leagues (2008/2009-2019/2020), I examine how fouls, yellow cards, and red cards changed following VAR adoption. The findings speak to broader questions about how monitoring shapes behavior in high-stakes, strategic environments.