Political Economy and Public Economics
Political Economy and Public Economics
The Department of Economics at the University of Warwick has an active Political Economy and Public Economics (PEPE) Research Group. These two disciplines have natural complementarities. Political Economy focuses more on the political feasibility of certain policies by looking at which policies are more likely to enjoy public support and thus succeed in an electoral contest. Public economics looks more at determining which policies are optimal in every environment, but is less concerned about their political approval or feasibility.
Recent world events such as the public backlash against globalization and inequality have raised awareness for the need for more integration between these two approaches as political resistance to the adoption of potentially beneficial policies has become ever more salient. Hence by their very nature these two disciplines transcend traditional field divisions such as micro and macroeconomics: they use theoretical, empirical and experimental methods to obtain conclusions, thus generating synergies with various other groups in our department from development to experimental to history to macroeconomics to economic theory.
Our activities
PEPE Research Group Seminar
Thursday: 11.15am-12.30pm
A weekly seminar is organised that brings top economists and political scientist speakers every week for a double-feature seminar in coordination with the LSE.
For a detailed scheduled of speakers please follow the link below:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/seminars/seminars/political-economy
Organisers: Michela Redoano and Mateusz Stalinski
PEPE Research Group Annual Conference
In collaboration with colleagues from Princeton and Yale, and with the support of CEPR, the PEPE Research Group organises an annual conference which has become a central meeting of political economists in Europe. Having taken place in previous years in Venice and Rome, it attracts over 70 delegates attending from leading institutions in the US, EU and the UK. Every year, several of our PhD students get to participate in a fully funded conference with an opportunity to engage with leading scholars.
Find out more about this year's conference which will take place 26-27 April 2024 in Rome.
Organisers: Helios Herrera, Mateusz Stalinski
People
Academics
Academics associated with the PEPE Research Group are:
Research Students
Events
CWIP Workshop - Ludovica Gazze
Title: Improving Residential Air Quality: Barriers to Adoption of Air Purifiers and Effects on Health and Well-Being (Pre-analysis plan)
Joint with Patrick Behrer and Bridget Hoffmann
We will conduct a randomised controlled trial with three groups, a control and two free air purifier trials of 10 and 90 days, with low- and middle-income households in Mexico City. First, we will use air quality monitors, wearable fitness trackers, smart outlets, and in-person surveys to measure residential air quality and estimate the impacts of air purification on health and well-being. Second, we will test interventions to address three potential key barriers to adoption of purifiers: experience, information, and cost. After the interventions, we will elicit all participants’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the purifier in an in-person survey. Later in the survey, we will provide households in the trials with personalised feedback on objectively-measured improvements in air quality and health relative to matched control participants to increase information and the salience of the air purifier’s benefits and elicit WTP a second time.