Culture and development
This theme investigates developing economies, particularly the roles culture, identity and ideas play in shaping developing countries.
Our research explores the roots of underdevelopment and the failure of governments to adopt ‘appropriate’ institutions. We investigate how ideas, interests and cultural norms affect policymaking and the development of institutions. We also consider how culture can be shaped or changed and the effect this can have on nation building and identity.
Theme leaders
Sharun Mukand
Sharun is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick
Robert Akerlof
Robert is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick.
Current and future research
We are working on a number of projects including:
- What makes a society tolerant? How do minorities react to persecution in different contexts? We will be studying India and Germany in the inter-war period to understand these questions, analysing the circumstances under which scholars migrated owing to persecution in their home countries.
- Ideas and identity politics in developing and developed countries
- Combating corruption: the role of guilt, shame and the rule of law
- Taxation and supplier networks: evidence from India
- Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: evidence from India
Research highlights
- Erasing ethnicity? Propaganda, nation building and identity in Rwanda, Arthur Blouin and Sharun Mukand, Journal of Political Economy, 2019
- The political economy of liberal democracy, Sharun Mukand, Dani Rodrik, Economic Journal, 2020
- The Long-run effects of the scramble for Africa, Stelios Michalopoulos, Elias Papaioannou, American Economic Review, 2016
- How responsive is investment in schooling to changes in redistributive policies and in returns?, Ran Abramitzky, Victor Lavy, Econometrica, 2014
- Modelling heaped duration data: an application to neonatal mortality, Wiji Arulampalam, Valentina Corradi, Daniel Gutknecht, Journal of Econometrics, 2017
- Migrants and firms: Evidence from China, Clément Imbert, Marlon SerorYanos Zylberberg and Yifan Zhang, working paper, 2020
- Ethnic discrimination on an online marketplace of vacation rental, Morgane Laouénan and Roland Rathelot, working paper, 2017
- Taxation and supplier networks: Evidence from India, Lucie Gadenne, Tushar K. Nandi and Roland Rathelot, working paper, 2019
Feature
How do culture and institutions help to explain development and divergence in a globalising world? Presentation by Sharun Mukand.