Our Seminars & Workshops

Title: Leaders Who Lose It: What Can We Do?

Abstract: This talk will present an ongoing book project (with co-author Guido Friebel, Goethe University Frankfurt). We argue first that the age of the world's political leaders is increasing in ways that pose concerns about their ability to function. We provide worldwide data about political leaders from 1870 to 2015 showing that the main mechanism underlying leader ageing is selective turnover: comparing across countries, circumstances that favor relatively older individuals entering office also make it relatively difficult to replace them. Furthermore, within-country comparisons show an absence of error-correction: increases in age and/or tenure of leaders produce no offsetting increase in the probability of replacing them. Secondly, we argue that recent medical evidence about the impact of dementia on decision making suggests that the damage to meta cognition (leader's ability to understand the extent of their own impairment) is more dangerous than its direct impact on cognitive skills. We set out a theoretical framework that helps to explain these facts, and discuss potential measures that might lower the associated economic, social and security risks.

Title: Partial Identification with Nonclassical Measurement Error (https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.12141).

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Title: Does data disclosure improve local government performance? Evidence from Italian municipalities (with Francesco Porcelli, Michela Redoano, Antonio Schiavone)

Title: Wage-Setting Constraints and Firm Responses to Demand Shocks

Abstract: This paper investigates how institutional wage-setting constraints, such as a national minimum wage or collectively bargained wages, affect firm responses to demand shocks. We develop a framework to interpret heterogeneous shock responses that depend on the constraints firms face, and provide empirical evidence on the relevance of these constraints in shaping firm behavior across three countries with different institutional settings: Portugal, Norway, and Colombia. We discuss the implications of our findings for conventional estimates of rent-sharing and employer wage-setting power.

 URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.19622

There will be two x 30mins presentations:

i) Margot will present Follow-up Work to Non-Meritocrats or Choice-Reluctant Meritocrats? A Redistribution Experiment in China and France.

ii) Zhifan will present Bargaining with the Emperors

Two 30 minutes presentations.

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Title: The Local Root of Wage Inequality. The paper can be found here

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Title: The Impact of Technology-Enhanced Learning on Students with Learning Differences in Higher Education: challenging the norm

Professor Fabio Aricò, Centre for Higher Education Research Practice Policy and Scholarship (CHERPPS), University of East Anglia

This talk presents findings from qualitative research exploring how technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is experienced by undergraduate students with specific learning differences (SpLDs) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), alongside the perspectives of their lecturers. Drawing on interview data, the study challenges assumptions that TEL is inherently inclusive, showing that its benefits are uneven and shaped by pedagogy, institutional practices, and context. The session highlights implications for inclusive pedagogy, staff development, and TEL policy in higher education, while also reflecting on the pedagogical research design and methodological choices underpinning the study

Do people predict others’ decisions by repeated sampling of simulated outcomes?

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