Economics » Events

27/04 1pm-2pm: Economic History Seminar - Marc Goni (Bergen)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:50:54 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Mon, 27 Apr '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Inheritance Customs and the European Marriage Pattern

Abstract: Centuries before the demographic transition, the European Marriage Pattern (EMP) limited fertility in Western Europe through high celibacy, late marriage, and nuclear households. Whether the EMP reflected female empowerment or instead financial hardship remains debated. This paper shows that local inheritance institutions determined where economic opportunity strengthened the EMP and where it did not. We construct a new atlas of 2,441 rural and urban inheritance customs in France and Belgium and combine it with genealogical data on 75,000 women born between 1500 and 1750. We show that the EMP emerged alongside economic opportunities where inheritance included women and younger siblings, but that the EMP reflected economic distress where inheritance was inegalitarian; that effects differed between urban and rural areas; and that they persisted over centuries. We develop and estimate a structural model in which inheritance rules affect marriage decisions through female empowerment and financial constraints. The estimates imply that 70 percent of celibacy reflected choice rather than constraint, suggesting that the EMP was primarily a positive force for Europe's development.

28/04 1pm-2pm: CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Matthew Ridley (Warwick)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:26:20 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Tue, 28 Apr '26

Where: S2.79

Title: The Willingness to Condemn Workplace Sexual Harassment: An Experimental Investigation

29/04 4pm-5:30pm: CRETA Seminar - Alex Smolin (Toulouse)

Andrew Taylor — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:58:47 GMT

When: 4pm - 5:30pm, Wed, 29 Apr '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Robust Trust (with Piotr Dworczak)

Abstract: An agent chooses an action based on her private information and a recommendation from an informed but potentially misaligned adviser. With a known probability, the adviser truthfully reports his signal; with the remaining probability, he can send any message. We characterize optimal robust decision rules that maximize the agent's worst-case expected payoff. Every optimal rule is equivalent to a trust-region policy i belief space: the adviser's reported beliefs are taken at face value if they fall within the trust region but are otherwise clipped to the trust region's boundary. We derive alignment thresholds above which advice is strictly valuable and fully characterize the solution in both binary-state and binary-action environments.

30/04 1pm-2pm: MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) Seminar - Ilia Krasikov (Arizona State University)

Andrew Taylor — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:11:05 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Thu, 30 Apr '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Reduced Forms: Feasibility, Extremality, Optimality

30/04 2pm-3pm: AMRG (Applied Microeconomics Reading Group)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:35:38 GMT

When: 2pm - 3pm, Thu, 30 Apr '26

Where: S2.86

30/04 2:30pm-3:45pm: DR@W Forum: Marc Kaufmann (CEU)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:37:05 GMT

When: 2:30pm - 3:45pm, Thu, 30 Apr '26

Where: WBS 1.003

A First Welfare Theorem with Fully Socially Responsible Agents and its Limitations (with Botond Koszegi of University of Bonn)

In a competitive economy with externality-generating goods, we show an extension of the First Welfare Theorem: if consumers *and* producers are fully socially responsible, the competitive equilibrium achieves the first best. The key insight is that in competitive markets the impact of buying a good and the impact of producing it sum to one — so while one side may correctly invoke replacement logic (if I don't, someone else will), this necessarily means the other side cannot. The result relies on three assumptions, each stronger than what the classical FWT requires: (i) homogeneous and full social concern across agents; (ii) agents know the true impact of their actions; (iii) agents believe markets clear in response to their deviations. The result highlights that even with fully caring consumers, markets left to themselves cannot aggregate social concern unless producers also act responsibly — contrary to the Friedman doctrine.

05/05 11am-1pm: MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - Emanuele Savini & Andrea Guerrieri D'Amati (PGRs)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:39:47 GMT

When: 11am - 1pm, Tue, 05 May '26

Where: S2.79

There will be two presentations (1hr each).

Titles to be advised.

05/05 1pm-2pm: CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Damiano Turchet (Warwick)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:31:53 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Tue, 05 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised.

05/05 2:15pm-3:30pm: Applied & Development Economics Seminar - Siwan Anderson (UBC)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:35:38 GMT

When: 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Tue, 05 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: The Persistence of Female Political Power in Africa (by Siwan Anderson, Sophia Du Plessis, Sahar Parsa, and James A. Robinson)

Abstract: Research on female political representation has tended to overlook the traditional role of women as leaders across many societies. Our study aims to address this gap by investigating the enduring influence of historical female political leadership on contemporary formal political representation in Africa. We test for this persistence by compiling two original datasets: one detailing female political leadership in precolonial societies and another on current female representation in local elections. Our findings indicate that ethnic groups historically allowing women in leadership roles in politics do tend to have a higher proportion of elected female representatives in today's formal local political institutions. We also observe that institutional, rather than economic, factors significantly shape the traditional political influence of women. Moreover, in accordance with historical accounts, we uncover evidence of a reversal of female political power due to institutional changes enforced by colonial powers.

06/05 11:15am-12:30pm: Econometrics Seminar - Antonio Galvao (Michigan State)

Andrew Taylor — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 13:32:37 GMT

When: 11:15am - 12:30pm, Wed, 06 May '26

Where: S0.18

Title to be advised.

06/05 4pm-5:30pm: CRETA Seminar - Xiaosheng Mu (Princeton)

Andrew Taylor — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:05:11 GMT

When: 4pm - 5:30pm, Wed, 06 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised.

07/05 11:15am-12:30pm: PEPE (Political Economy & Public Economics) Seminar - Gustavo Bobonis (Toronto)

Andrew Taylor — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:58:14 GMT

When: 11:15am - 12:30pm, Thu, 07 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised

07/05 12pm-1pm: Faculty Seminar - Fabio Arico (East Anglia)

Andrew Taylor — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:55:26 GMT

When: 12pm - 1pm, Thu, 07 May '26

Where: S0.19

Title: The Impact of Technology-Enhanced Learning on Students with Learning Differences in Higher Education: challenging the norm

Professor Fabio Aricò, Centre for Higher Education Research Practice Policy and Scholarship (CHERPPS), University of East Anglia

This talk presents findings from qualitative research exploring how technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is experienced by undergraduate students with specific learning differences (SpLDs) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), alongside the perspectives of their lecturers. Drawing on interview data, the study challenges assumptions that TEL is inherently inclusive, showing that its benefits are uneven and shaped by pedagogy, institutional practices, and context. The session highlights implications for inclusive pedagogy, staff development, and TEL policy in higher education, while also reflecting on the pedagogical research design and methodological choices underpinning the study

07/05 2pm-3:30pm: Econometrics Seminar - Toru Kitagawa (Brown)

Andrew Taylor — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:45:14 GMT

When: 2pm - 3:30pm, Thu, 07 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised

07/05 2:30pm-3:45pm: DR@W Forum: Erik Stuchly (Hamburg)

Andrew Taylor — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:52:29 GMT

When: 2:30pm - 3:45pm, Thu, 07 May '26

Where: WBS 2.007

There is substantial evidence that humans engage their own decision-making mechanisms when predicting choices of others. According to one account, such predictions are implemented by the observer running a single simulation of the other person’s decision process in their mind and selecting the simulation outcome as the choice option. However, such an implementation would result in a large degree of stochasticity in predicted choices, thereby resulting in relatively low prediction accuracy.
In this talk, I will present an alternative idea - that observers could reduce uncertainty and increase prediction accuracy by simulating the decision between the same two options multiple times, sampling the outcomes of these simulations and then selecting the option corresponding to the most frequent outcome.

I will present results from a behavioural decision study employing the modified dictator game paradigm, aimed at testing whether we can identify behavioural indicators of sampling multiple simulation outcomes when participants predict other’s choices: specifically, whether participants show lower stochasticity and higher response times in predictions than self-decisions, after controlling for decision difficulty across these two conditions. I will complement these behavioural findings with analyses based on comparing the Drift-Diffusion model and a “sampling-of-decision-outcomes” model of choice. Together, these findings will shed light on potential differences between the mechanisms involved in making choices for ourselves and predicting the choices of others.

07/05 4pm-5:15pm: EBER Seminar - Etienne Le Rossignol (University de Namur)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:49:21 GMT

When: 4pm - 5:15pm, Thu, 07 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Scope of Trust: Origins and Consequences

08/05 10am-11am: Computational History Workshop

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:02:52 GMT

When: 10am - 11am, Fri, 08 May '26

11/05 2pm-3:30pm: Econometrics Seminar - Wendun Wang (EUR)

Andrew Taylor — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:18:23 GMT

When: 2pm - 3:30pm, Mon, 11 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Synthetic Control and Synthetic Difference-in-Differences: An Asymptotic Optimality Perspective

12/05 1pm-2pm: MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - David Boll (PGR)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:40:39 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Tue, 12 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised.

12/05 1pm-2pm: CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Johannes Brinkmann (PGR)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:32:52 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Tue, 12 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised.

12/05 2:15pm-3:30pm: Applied & Development Economics Seminar - Kelsey Jack (UC Berkeley)

Andrew Taylor — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:47:57 GMT

When: 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Tue, 12 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Health Insurance for Seasonal Savings: Evidence from Rural Côte d'Ivoire

Authors: Günther Fink, B. Kelsey Jack, Renate Strobl, Dao Daouda

Abstract: Households in low-income agricultural economies face large seasonal fluctuations in income and limited access to financial tools for smoothing consumption. In such settings, health insurance can serve not only as risk protection, but also as a state-contingent savings technology, transferring resources from high-income harvest periods to low-income lean periods. We study the rollout of Côte d'Ivoire's national health insurance scheme in a context with high morbidity, substantial out-of-pocket expenditures, and pronounced income seasonality---conditions under which the potential welfare gains from insurance are particularly large. Using a randomized subsidy design among 2,468 cocoa-farming households, we show that insurance demand is highly responsive to both price and cash-on-hand liquidity. Despite strong demand and actuarially favorable pricing, we find limited effects on health spending or consumption. We show that this disconnect arises from frictions in accessing benefits, including weak verification and reimbursement environments that limit providers' willingness to honor coverage without immediate proof. Our results highlight the importance of implementation, trust, and contract enforceability in determining the welfare impacts of social insurance.

13/05 10am-11am: CRETA Theory Seminar - Marilyn Pease (Indiana University)

Andrew Taylor — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:00:17 GMT

When: 10am - 11am, Wed, 13 May '26

Title: Follow the Leader? Coordination Motives in Sequential Information Acquisition (joint with Mark Whitmeyer)

14/05 11:15am-12:30pm: Political Economy & Public Economics Seminar - Francesco Trebbi (UoCalifornia, Berkeley)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:04:39 GMT

When: 11:15am - 12:30pm, Thu, 14 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Decoupling Taste-Based versus Statistical Discrimination in ElectionsLink opens in a new window (with Amanda de Albuquerque, Fred Finan, Anubhav Jha, and Laura Karpuska)

14/05 1pm-2pm: MIWP (Microeconomics Work in Progress) - Maryam Saeedi (Carnegie Mellon)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:07:39 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Thu, 14 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised.

14/05 2pm-3:30pm: Macro/International Seminar - Olivia Bordeu (Berkeley)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:32:51 GMT

When: 2pm - 3:30pm, Thu, 14 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Bank Branches and the Allocation of Capital across Cities (with Gustavo Gonzalez, Marcos Sora).

14/05 2:30pm-3:45pm: DR@W Forum - Slot Available

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:30:21 GMT

When: 2:30pm - 3:45pm, Thu, 14 May '26

Where: Wolfson Research Exchange (Library)

18/05 2pm-3:30pm: Econometrics Seminar - Yuhao Wang (Tsinghua)

Andrew Taylor — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:00:16 GMT

When: 2pm - 3:30pm, Mon, 18 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title to be advised.

19/05 12pm-1pm: MIEW (Macro/International Economics Workshop) - Daniel Jaar (EUI)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:42:13 GMT

When: 12pm - 1pm, Tue, 19 May '26

Where: S0.08

Daniel Jaar is visiting the department for one week.

Title to be advised.

19/05 1pm-2pm: CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) Workshop - Desmond Fairall (PGR)

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:34:27 GMT

When: 1pm - 2pm, Tue, 19 May '26

Where: S0.08

Title to be advised.

19/05 2:15pm-3:30pm: Applied & Development Economics Seminar - David Lagakos (BU)

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:59:09 GMT

When: 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Tue, 19 May '26

Where: S2.79

Title: Is the Electricity Sector a Weak Link in Development? (joint with Martin Shu and Jonathan Colmer)