PART I: BARGAINING, LOBBYNG AND STATE CAPTURE -- Bargaining with Outside Options -- Lobbying mechanisms -- Financial Sector Regulation and the Revolving Door in US Commercial Banks -- PART II: DEMOCRACY, PARTICIPATION AND ELECTORAL POLITICS -- The Rhetoric and the Reality of Austerity -- Electoral Politics in Britain 2010 to 2015 -- Valence and Ideological Proximity in the Rise of Nationalist Parties: Spanish General Elections, 2008 and 2011 -- Measuring Direct Democracy -- Political Participation in Rural India: A Village Level Study -- Elections with international relations dominance -- Electoral rules and proportionality in Spain: Estimating the impact of some Swedish rules through the 2011 electoral data -- PART III: STATE AND PUBLIC SERVICES -- Is there a Doctor in the House? -- What makes people nursing home residents -- individual need or municipalities’ supply? -- Civil Service and the Crisis: A comparative analysis of Iberian Countries (2008-2013) -- PART IV: CASES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE -- Congressional negotiations with costly voting: Understanding the reforms to PEMEX in 2006-2008 -- Institutional change, specific investments and photovoltaic power plants: The empirical effects of the energy policy of solar farms in Spain -- The economic effects of the implementation of the Greek Adjustment Plan in the Great Recession -- E-procurement and innovation in the Portuguese municipalities: when change is mandatory.