• Sumin Lee Department of Advanced Social and International Studies, the University of Tokyo
• Minkyu Kim PhD student in Economics, Michigan State University

• Rieko Kage Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo

A Petition system has been not only the most conventional repertories to deliver democratic citizens’ desires, but also the bridge between legislature and citizens. Despite the importance of petitions, they have been assumed to be a relatively weak measure, without consensus on quantitative studies regarding the short-term effect of petitions to the realization of citizens’ desires. This paper examined the direct effect of petitions to the implementation using extensive survey data. Exploiting the control function approach, this article identifies the effect of petition robust to the potential concerns on endogeneity. The estimation results show that the petitions can have significant effect on the implementation, not only for non-binding cases but also for the cases asking for administrative actions, and the results are robust to estimation strategies, variable definitions, and covariates controls.

Sumin Lee is a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(JSPS) research fellow. Her research interests include Japanese local politics, political engagement, democratic responsiveness and the petition system.
Minkyu Kim is a PhD student in Economics at Michigan State University. His main research interest is econometric theory and applied econometrics. He is currently studying the causal inference of dynamic panel data models with endogenous policy assignment.