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
Thu 23 May, '24- |
PEPE Seminar - Saumitra Jha (Stanford GSB)S2.79Title: Political Trenches: War, Partisanship, and Polarization (with Pauline Grosjean, Michael Vlassopoulos and Yves Zenou) Abstract: We show how local segregation and exposure to partisans affect political behavior and polarization, and contribute to critical ideological realignment. We exploit large-scale, exogenous and high-stakes peer assignment due to universal conscription of soldiers assigned from each of 34,947 French municipalities to infantry regiments during WWI. Soldiers from poor, rural municipalities, where the redistributive message of socialism had yet to penetrate, vote more for the left after the war when exposed to left-wing partisans within their regiment, even while neighboring municipalities assigned to right-wing partisans become inoculated against the left. We provide evidence that these differences reflect the combination of persuasive information and material incentives rather than pure conformity. These differences further lead to the emergence of sharp and enduring post-war discontinuities across regimental boundaries that are reflected, not only in divergent voting patterns, but also in violent civil conflicts between Collaborators and the Resistance during WWII. |
|
Thu 23 May, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Massimiliano FurlanS2.79Title: Deep Learning to play games. |
|
Tue 28 May, '24- |
CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workship - Devesh Rustagi (Warwick)S0.09Title: Market Exposure, Civic Values and Rules Abstract: Does markets exposure foster or erode civic values and rules necessary to constrain opportunistic behavior? Using a natural experiment on market location from Ethiopia, I compare individuals who are from the same clan and attend the same market but vary in their exposure to that market. I find a positive effect of market exposure on civic values and rule formation. This result arises because exchange occurs primarily in livestock, which is prone to cooperation problem from asymmetric information and weak state capacity. I use vignette studies to show that societies develop different types of exchange structures to mitigate this problem, which then shapes their civic values and rules. In societies far from markets, there is no need for civic values and rules, as individuals rarely attend markets and sell livestock eponymously within their social network. In societies near markets, individuals regularly attend markets, whereby impersonal exchange creates a demand for civic values and community sanctioning in the absence of which individuals will have to forego efficiency gains. Exposure to markets without asymmetric information has no effect on civic values and rules, allowing me to rule out prosperity and contact hypothesis as alternative channels. |
|
Tue 28 May, '24- |
Applied Economics/Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - Lena Hensvik (Uppsala Universitet)S0.20Title: Outside Job Opportunities and the Gender Gap in Pay Abstract: A growing literature suggests that outside job offers are an important component of on-the-job wage growth. Such outside offers could contribute to the gender wage gap due to a differential arrival rate of (relevant) job opportunities and/or because of gender differences in negotiation. In this paper, we shed light on this source of gender wage inequality by empirically studying male and female wage and job mobility responses to the arrival of outside job opportunities that arise via family networks. We show in Swedish register data that such opportunities are associated with higher wages for men but not for women. However, women have higher job mobility in response to expansions in connected firms- particularly when those offer a shorter commute compared to the current employer. Together, our results are consistent with women being less likely to renegotiate in response to the arrival of job offers. The paper thus confirms in a broader setting that gender negotiation differences is an economically meaningful source of the remaining gender pay gap.
|
|
Tue 28 May, '24- |
CRETA Seminar - Leeat Yariv (Princeton)S0.20Title to be advised. |
|
Wed 29 May, '24- |
Teaching & Learning Seminar - Nahid Farnaz (York)S0.18Title: Enhancing Learning Through Group Work: Challenges and Strategies Abstract: Group work is a powerful pedagogical tool that promotes active learning, collaboration, and critical thinking skills among students. This seminar explores some effective strategies for implementing group work in educational settings along with the challenges associated with integrating group work into formative and summative assessments. |
|
Thu 30 May, '24- |
Seminar - Julien LabonneS0.20Title to be advised Host: Andreas Stegmann |
|
Thu 30 May, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Ehud KalaiS0.09Title to be advised. |
|
Thu 30 May, '24- |
Macro/International Seminar - Thierry Mayer (Sciences PO)S0.09Title to be advised. |
|
Mon 3 Jun, '24- |
Economic History Seminar - Mara Squicciarini (Bocconi)S2.77 Cowling RoomTitle to be advised. |
|
Mon 3 Jun, '24- |
Econometrics Seminar - Xiaoxia Shi (Wisconsin)S0.10Title to be advised. |
|
Tue 4 Jun, '24- |
MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - to be advisedS0.09Title to be advised. |
|
Tue 4 Jun, '24- |
CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - to be advisedS0.09Title to be advised. |
|
Tue 4 Jun, '24- |
Applied Economics/Econometrics & Public Policy (CAGE) Seminar - Zoe CullenS0.10Title to be advised. |
|
Wed 5 Jun, '24- |
CAGE-AMES Workshop - to be advisedS0.09Title to be advised. |
|
Wed 5 Jun, '24- |
CRETA Seminar - Giacomo Lanzani (Harvard)S0.10 |
|
Thu 6 Jun, '24- |
Applied Economics Reading GroupS1.50Edoardo Badiiwill discuss "The effect of minimum wages on low-paid jobs" (for information, this is a good example of a stacked DiD approach) by Cengiz et al (2019), published in QJE (https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/134/3/1405/5484905) (supervisor: Nikhil Datta)
|
|
Thu 6 Jun, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Gautam Bose (UNSW)S0.18Title to be advised. |
|
Thu 6 Jun, '24- |
Econometrics SeminarS0.18Title to be advised |
|
Mon 10 Jun, '24- |
Economic History Seminar - Marco Tabellini (HBS)S2.77 Cowling RoomTitle: Homeward Bound: How Migrants Seek Out Familiar Climates (with Marguerite Obolensky, Charles A Taylor).. |
|
Thu 20 Jun, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Chris BurnittS2.77 Cowling RoomTitle to be advised. |
|
Thu 27 Jun, '24- |
MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Workshop - Arman MohammadiS2.77 Cowling RoomTitle to be advised. |