Replication Data for: Audience Costs and the Dynamics of War and Peace

We estimate audience costs and examine their substantive effects on the evolution of interstate disputes by using an infinitely repeated and dynamic game of crisis escalation. Unlike past efforts, our approach estimates country-specific audience cost parameters without replying on proxy variables, e.g., democracy measures. Contrary to intuition, increases in a country's audience costs encourage it to initiate disputes in equilibrium, because the costs serve as a commitment device during the subsequent crisis, incentivizing the country to stand firm and coercing its opponent to back down. Nonetheless, the results demonstrate that larger audience costs would result in more peace worldwide, as they also discourage potential opponents from initiating disputes. Beyond regime type, we find that a free press, provisions for executive appointment or removal, and historical rivalries are also important determinants of audience costs. NOTE: Some of the files here no longer work as expected due to software updates. Up-to-date implementation can be found at: https://github.com/ccrismancox/AJPS_audienceCosts (10/22/2019)