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
Wed 19 Oct, '22- |
CAGE-AMES Workshop - tbaS2.79 |
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Wed 19 Oct, '22- |
Economics PhD job talk session - Velichka DimitrovaS2.77 Cowling RoomTitle: The Fertility Impact Of Mass Return Migration Fields: Economic History, Labour Supervisors: James Fenske, Manuel Bagues |
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Wed 19 Oct, '22- |
CRETA Seminar - Ann-Katrin Roesler (Toronto)S2.79Title: How informed do you want your principal to be? (joint with Rahul Deb and Mallesh Pay) |
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Thu 20 Oct, '22- |
PEPE (Political Economy & Public Economics) Seminar - Avidit AcharyaS2.79 |
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Thu 20 Oct, '22- |
Economics PhD job talk session - Ceren Bengu CibikS2.77 Cowling RoomTitle: Avoiding Dissonant Information Fields: Behavioural Economics, Experimental Economics Supervisors: |
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Thu 20 Oct, '22- |
Behavioural and Experimental Reading GroupS2.79 |
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Fri 21 Oct, '22- |
Economics PhD job talk session - Raghav MalhotraS2.77 Cowling RoomTitle: Price Changes And Welfare Analysis: Measurement Under Individual Heterogeniety Fields: Theory, Public, Labour Supervisors: Herakles Polemarchakis, Robert Akerlof, Costas Cavounidis |
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Mon 24 Oct, '22- |
Econometrics Seminar - Patrick Gagliardini (Lugano)S2.79Title: Eigenvalue tests for the number of latent factorsin short panels Alain-Philippe Fortin, Patrick Gagliardini, Olivier Scaillet |
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Tue 25 Oct, '22- |
MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - tbaS2.79Title: Firming up price inflation |
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Tue 25 Oct, '22- |
CWIP (CAGE work in progress) - Christine BraunS2.79 via MS TeamsTitle to be advised. This workshop is hybrid, here is a Teams link . https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OWE3ZDAyNWYtYTgzMS00NTUxLWI2ZDktMWYxZjFkYjQyZTUy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2209bacfbd-47ef-4465-9265-3546f2eaf6bc%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22d235acba-bb89-4eff-a07c-515e0b711c79%22%7d
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Tue 25 Oct, '22- |
Applied Economics, Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - Barbara Biasi (Yale SoM)S2.79Title: The Education-Innovation Gap. |
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Wed 26 Oct, '22- |
CAGE-AMES Workshop - Chicheng MaS2.77 Cowling RoomTitle: Classicism and Modern Growth: The Shadow of the Sages Abstract: This paper examines how intellectual culture has affected economic modernization in China, where the learned class embraced classical wisdom for millennia but encountered the shock of Western industrial influence in the mid-19th century. I use the number of sage temples to measure the strength of classical worship in 269 prefectures, and instrument for the distribution of sage temples using the distribution of sages’ birthplaces. I find that classical worship discouraged intellectuals from appreciating modern learning and thus inhibited the growth of industrial firms between 1858 and 1927. By contrast, industrialization grew faster in regions less constrained by classicism. |
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Wed 26 Oct, '22- |
Teaching & Learning Seminar - Ralf Becker (Manchester)S0.20Title: Using an Online Interactive Textbook for Content Delivery in a large on-campus Mathematics for Economists course. The Covid pandemic forced lecturers to rethink the way content is delivered to students. Live online lectures and pre-recorded video recordings became standard tools of synchronous and asynchronous content delivery respectively. Reading materials (textbooks or lecture provided notes) also often supplement the content delivery, but are not usually used as the sole source of new content. We present summary findings regarding the use of an online, interactive textbook-type resource. This resource combined text-based content delivery with interspersed pre-recorded online videos and questions (with instantaneous feedback to students) to check students’ understanding. This resource was produced for a large Mathematics for Economists unit with 900+ students in the pandemic affected academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22. In the second of these years this resource was used despite on-campus lectures being available again as a tool. While the online textbook was used to deliver the content asynchronously, there were twice-weekly Review and Q&A sessions in which students could bring up any questions and problems and in which the lecturer would review some of the key concepts introduced in the online lessons. We present findings on the usage pattern of the resource as well as student feedback. The student feedback presented, leads to the conclusion that, even as on-campus lecture delivery is becoming available again, a future blend of learning activities can include substantial asynchronous content delivery. This flipped classroom setup is attractive as it can create the space in synchronous meetings to focus on active student learning which has proved to contribute positively to learning outcomes (Freeman et al . (2014). The online textbook allows us to observe patterns of study we cannot normally observe. The amount of time spend on the learning resource and its timing as well as the engagement with the feedback questions allows us to identify some of the study patterns of successful and less successful students. Organiser: Subhasish Dey |
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Wed 26 Oct, '22- |
#EconTEAching seminar: "How mobile is an Education-focused career in Economics: What do institutions look for?ZoomPanel: Chair: Cloda Jenkins (Imperial) Co-organiser: Stefania Paredes Fuentes to attend on Zoom, register here before Monday 24th October. |
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Thu 27 Oct, '22- |
PEPE (Political Economy & Public Economics) Seminar - Laura Schechter (Wisc)S2.79TItle: Brokering Votes with Information Spread via Social Networks (with R Duarte, F Finan, H Larreguy) |
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Thu 27 Oct, '22- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) - Francesco Rocciolo (Imperial)S2.79Title to be advised. |
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Thu 27 Oct, '22- |
Behavioural and Experimental Reading GroupS2.79 |
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Mon 31 Oct, '22- |
Econometrics Seminar - Martin Weidner (Oxford)S2.79Title: Bounds on Average Effects in Discrete Choice Panel Data (joint with Cavit Pakel). Abstract: Average effects in discrete choice panel data models with individual-specific fixed effects are generally only partially identified in short panels. While consistent estimation of the identified set is possible, it generally requires very large sample sizes, especially when the number of support points of the observed covariates is large, such as when the covariates are continuous. In this paper, we propose estimating outer bounds on the identified set of average effects. Our bounds are easy to construct, converge at the parametric rate, and are computationally simple to obtain even in moderately large samples, independent of whether the covariates are discrete or continuous. We also provide asymptotically valid confidence intervals on the identified set. Simulation studies confirm that our approach works well and is informative in finite samples. We also consider an application to labor force participation. |
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Tue 1 Nov, '22- |
MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - Ganesh Viswanath Natraj (WBS)S2.79 |
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Tue 1 Nov, '22- |
CAGE Seminar - Frank SchilbachS2.79 via MS Teams |
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Tue 1 Nov, '22- |
CAGE Seminar - Awa Ambra Seck (Harvard)S2.79Title: Age Set vs. Kin: Culture and Financial Ties in East Africa. Abstract: We study how social organization shapes patterns of economic interaction and the effects of national policy, focusing on the distinction between age-based and kin-based groups in sub-Saharan Africa. Motivated by ethnographic accounts suggesting that this distinction affects redistribution, we ana- lyze a cash transfer program in Kenya and find that in age-based societies there are consumption spillovers within the age cohort, but not the extended family, while in kin-based societies we find the opposite. Next, we document that social structure shapes the impact of policy by showing that Uganda’s pension program had positive effects on child nutrition only in kin-based societies.
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Wed 2 Nov, '22- |
CAGE-AMES Workshop - Sam Marshall (PGR)S2.79Title: What Do Minimum Wages Do? Evidence from Tanzania
Abstract: To what extent do firms in developing countries comply with minimum wage laws, and how do they affect the location decision of workers? Tanzania enacted its first minimum wage law in 2010, which stipulated different levels for each industry. Using novel data from Tanzania's annual census of firms, I find evidence of partial firm compliance, with no disemployment effects. To assess whether minimum wages are important to workers, I use a spatial equilibrium model which exploits variation in average minimum wages across space to determine their location choice. I find an elasticity of migration with respect to expected earnings of one half. This result is driven by changes in the minimum wage for which the direct effect on migration is 3.4 percent. This suggests that variable minimum wage laws can be used to reallocate labor into more productive sectors, even under partial compliance |
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Wed 2 Nov, '22- |
CRETA Theory Seminar - Marcus Pivato (Cergy Paris)S2.79Title. Weighted representative democracy |
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Thu 3 Nov, '22- |
PEPE (Political Economy & Public Economics) Seminar - Julien Labonne (Oxford)S2.79Title: Campaigning Against Populism: Emotional and Informational Messaging in Real Campaigns, with Cesi Cruz (UCLA) and Francesco Trebbi (Berkeley) |
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Thu 3 Nov, '22- |
Reading Group in Econometrics/LabourS2.77 Cowling Room |
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Thu 3 Nov, '22- |
Behavioural and Experimental Reading GroupS2.79 |
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Mon 7 Nov, '22- |
Econometrics Seminar - Bryan Graham (UC Berkeley)S2.79Title: Simulated Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Large Games using Scenarios". This is joint work with Andrin Pelican. Abstract: This paper introduces a new simulation algorithm for evaluating the log-likelihood and score functions associated with a class of supermodular |
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Tue 8 Nov, '22- |
MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - Edoardo Tolva (PGR)S2.79Title: Substitutability Across Modes of Transport: Implications for International Trade |
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Tue 8 Nov, '22- |
CWIP (CAGE Work in progress) - Natalia ZinovyevaS2.79 via MS Teams |
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Tue 8 Nov, '22- |
Applied Economics, Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - Samuel Asher (Imperial College)S2.79Title of paper: The Long-Run Development Impacts of Agricultural Productivity Gains: Evidence from Irrigation Canals in India Abstract: How do investments in agricultural productivity translate into development and structural transformation? We estimate the long-run impacts of India's irrigation canals, which span 300,000+ km and deliver water to 130,000+ villages. Drawing on high-resolution data on every household, firm, village, and town in India, we use three empirical strategies to characterize the direct and spillover effects of large increases in agricultural productivity. Our findings are consistent with a spatial equilibrium model in which labor is mobile, and urban areas have non-farm productivity advantages. In the long run, areas directly treated by canal irrigation have sharply higher agricultural productivity and population density, but similar non-farm employment shares to non-canal areas. Persistent consumption gains accrue only to landowners and structural transformation occurs almost, exclusively through the concentrated growth of regional towns. In the long run, the substantial productivity effects of canals were equilibrated through the movement of labor across space rather than within locations across sectors. |