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 Reseach Group Name research group are:
Michela Redoano
Co-ordinator
Helios Herrera
Deputy Co-ordinator
Research Students
Events
Mon 29 Apr, '24- |
Data Science Workshop - Nathan CanenS2.79 |
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Mon 29 Apr, '24- |
Econometrics Seminar - Tim Christensen (UCL)S0.10 |
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Mon 29 Apr, '24- |
Economic History Seminar - Katherine Eriksson (UC Davis)S2.77 Cowling RoomTitle: Marriage and the Intergenerational Mobility of Women: Evidence from Marriage Certificates 1850-1920 Abstract: Due to data limitations, long-run changes in women’s economic mobility are not well understood. Using a set of marriage certificates from Massachusetts over the period of 1850-1920, we link women and men to their childhood and adult census records to obtain a measure of occupational standing across two generations. Intergenerational mobility was higher for women than for men in the earliest 1850-70 cohort. Men’s mobility increases by the 1880-1900 cohort, whereas women’s does not, leading to a convergence. During a period with low married women’s labor force participation, the choice of a partner was crucial for women’s economic status. We find evidence of strong and increasing assortative matching prior to 1880, followed by declines to the 1900-20 cohort. Absent the increase in marital sorting, married women would have experienced the same increases in intergenerational mobility as did men in the sample. Finally, both men and women in the youngest cohort experience an increase in mobility and decreases in marital sorting, consistent with the widespread expansion of educational attainment during the “High School Movement." |
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Mon 29 Apr, '24- |
Data Science Workshop - Nathan CanenS2.79 |
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Tue 30 Apr, '24- |
MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - Emanuele Savini (PGR)S2.79Title: Monetary policy, information, and country risk shocks in the euro area. |
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Tue 30 Apr, '24- |
CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Arun Advani (Warwick)S2.79Title: Top Flight - How responsive are top earners to tax rates? |
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Tue 30 Apr, '24- |
Applied Economics, Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - NIlesh FernandoS2.79Title: Regulation by Reputation? Intermediaries, Labor Abuses, and International Migration (with Niharika Singh, University of Notre Dame) |
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Wed 1 May, '24- |
Data Science Workshop - Nathan CanenS2.79 |
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Wed 1 May, '24- |
Teaching & Learning Seminar - Rebecca Wilde (WMG)S0.13Title : Immersive learning: 4-week block teaching. Speaker: Rebecca Wilde (WMG) Abstract: Immersive learning has recently gained attention within the higher education sector. Current publications reflect heavily around the benefits gained from block teaching. A significant caveat within the existing body of literature is around how 4-week block teaching and immersive learning is operationalised in terms of curriculum design; and how this is cascaded to a course and module level. The focus of the session will be upon WMG’s experience of moving from a one-week block to a four-week block teaching model. |
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Wed 1 May, '24- |
Data Science Workshop - Nathan CanenS2.79 |
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Wed 1 May, '24- |
CRETA Theory Seminar - Jakub Steiner (Zurich)S2.79Title to be advised. |
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Thu 2 May, '24- |
PEPE Seminar - Jon Eguia (Michigan State)S2.79Title: Voter polarization and extremism |
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Thu 2 May, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Peter Hammond (Warwick)S2.79Title to be advised. |
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Thu 2 May, '24- |
Applied Microeconomics Reading GroupS2.77 Cowling RoomGokul Gopalan Ramachandran will discuss IV with multiple treatment margins (author: Jack Mountjoy; journal: AER 2022; paper title: "Community Colleges and Upward Mobility" https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20181756) (supervisor: Dita Eckardt)
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Tue 7 May, '24- |
MIEW (Macroeconomics/International Economics Workshop) - Alperen TosunS2.79Title: Optimally informative monetary policy |
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Tue 7 May, '24- |
CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Subhasish Dey (Warwick)S2.79Title: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: EDUCATION-OCCUPATION MISMATCH FOR SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS IN THE UK Authors Subhasish Dey, University of Warwick Mahima Kapoor, University of Warwick Anirban Mukherjee, University of Calcutta
Abstract: This study assesses the quality of occupations that second-generation immigrants are employed in relative to natives in the UK. Based on the concept of education-occupation mismatch, we investigate whether the utilization of workers’ skills is commensurate with those required under the job. Using the multinomial logistic regression model to fit data from the Understanding Society: UK Household Longitudinal Study, we show that second-generation immigrants have a higher probability of being over-educated than natives and evaluate the mechanisms driving the results. We further explore the presence of double penalty along the overlap of legal and social identities. The findings direct attention towards the unique context of second-generation immigrants and inform policy efforts. |
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Tue 7 May, '24- |
MIWP Seminar - Kevin He (UPenn)S0.09Title: Learning from Viral Content Here is a link to the paper: https://kevinhe.net/papers/viral.pdfLink opens in a new window |
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Tue 7 May, '24- |
Applied Economics/ Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - Heather Sarsons (UBC)S2.79Title: Moving to Opportunity, Together |
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Tue 7 May, '24- |
Econometrics Seminar - Yuya Sasaki (Vanderbilt)S2.79Title: On the Inconsistency of Cluster-Robust Inference and How Subsampling Can Fix It Abstract: Conventional methods of cluster-robust inference are inconsistent in the presence of unignorably large clusters. We formalize this claim by establishing a necessary and sufficient condition for the consistency of the conventional methods. We find that this condition for the consistency is rejected for a majority of empirical research papers. In this light, we propose a novel score subsampling method that achieves uniform size control over a broad class of data generating processes, covering that fails the conventional method. Simulation studies support these claims. With real data used by an empirical paper, we showcase that the conventional methods conclude significance while our proposed method concludes insignificance. |
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Wed 8 May, '24- |
CAGE-AMES Workshop - Adam Di Lizia (PGR)S2.79Title: Social Influence in Online Reviews: Evidence from the Steam Store Abstract: How good are reviews as signals of product quality for consumers? Using a data-set derived from the popular Steam gaming platform I investigate the ‘priming’ of quality judgements as based on pre-existing consumer assessments. A policy reform on Steam in 2019 changed the average level of exposure to previous consumer quality ratings, with this randomly occurring within a game and reviewer’s life cycle. I find that removing the exposure of a reviewer to a product’s average rating leads to a 35% drop in the dependency of their review on such a rating. This is not driven by selection effects, and is robust to a wide range of alternate specifications and measures. The effect is heavily asymmetric: negativity compounds to inflate the gap between poorly-rated and well rated games. This is driven by users who are less experienced both within and across games. Finally, using estimates of owner data, I run a simple structural model of game choice based on rating. A 1% increase to product rating is equivalent to a 2.5 dollar sale price reduction, suggesting this effect has large implications for buyers and sellers.
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Wed 8 May, '24- |
CRETA Seminar - Rahul Deb (Toronto)S2.79Title: Statistical Discrimination and the Distribution of Wages Here is the MS Teams link for this CRETA seminar |
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Thu 9 May, '24- |
PEPE Seminar - Nina Bobkova (Rice)S2.79Title: Two-dimensional information choice in committees |
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Thu 9 May, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Joel Watson (UCSD)S2.79Title: Contractual Chains |
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Thu 9 May, '24- |
Macro/International Seminar - Yue Yu (Toronto)S2.79Title: National Road Upgrading and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Ugandan Households (with Ian Herzog and Siyuan Liu) |
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Tue 14 May, '24- |
CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Matthew Ridley (Warwick)S2.79Title to be advised. |
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Tue 14 May, '24- |
Applied Economics/Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - Seth Zimmerman (Yale)S2.79Title : Parents’ Earnings and the Returns to Universal Pre-Kindergarten. |
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Wed 15 May, '24- |
Data Science Workshop - Rafael Jimenez Duran (Bocconi)S2.79 |
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Wed 15 May, '24- |
Teaching & Learning Seminar - William Taylor (Lancaster)A0.23Title: The use of social networks to improve engagement and implement a research-led curriculum. Abstract: Improving the integration between research and teaching in higher education is an interesting yet complex issue that has been studied in several research papers. However, the relationship between research quality and students’ satisfaction, is consistently negative for economics over time. Past research suggests that the integration of research in higher education teaching has positive results in both students’ motivation and final grades in different areas, but in practice, this is a complex issue. We introduce an Instagram account as a complementary teaching resource in 4 different modules across 2 universities. The purpose of the account it to (1) introduce research-led teaching activities; (2) increase engagement and (3) relate teaching to students’ real lives. We find that engagement with the content persists even after the teaching term finishes, furthermore we observe a positive relationship between the students’ final grades and interaction with the account. |
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Wed 15 May, '24- |
Data Science Workshop - Rafael Jimenez Duran (Bocconi)S2.79 |
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Wed 15 May, '24- |
CRETA Seminar - Miaomiao Dong (Penn State)S0.08Title: Strategic Disclosure in Research Races (joint with Kalyan Chatterjee and Kaustav Das) |