Note: This seminar is by invitation only.

Questions? Comments? Contact pegroup@wcfia.harvard.edu concerning meeting time/place, directions, paper distribution, archived papers, etc.; jfrieden@harvard.edu concerning additions to the mailing list, paper topics, & substantive comments.

Please email: pegroup@wcfia.harvard.edu with any problems.

Important Links

• All PE Group Papers
  
• Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
• Institute for Quantitative Social Science

Papers 2009-2010

Past Papers:

September 28, 2010
“Economic Explanations for Opposition to Immigration: Distinguishing Between Prevalence and Magnitude.” by Neil Malhotra, Yotam Margalit, and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, July 21, 2010. 

September 21, 2010
“The Centrist U.S. Press.” by Riccardo Puglisi and James M. Snyder, Jr., August 13, 2010. 

September 14, 2010
“A Theory of Strategic Voting in Runoff Elections.” by Laurent Bouton, July 28, 2010.

September 7, 2010
“Determinants of Constitutional Change: Why Do Countries Change Their Form of Government?” by Bernard Hayo and Stefan Voigt, June, 2010.  

August 31, 2010
“Trade and Geography in the Economic Origins of Islam: Theory and Evidence” by Stelios Michalopoulos, Alireza Naghavi, and Giovanni Prarolo, May, 2010.

August 24, 2010 - CANCELED

August 17, 2010 - CANCELED

August 10, 2010
“Equity ownership and campaign financing of members of Congress and the bailout of the financial sector” by Ahmed Tahoun and Laurence van Lent, March 25, 2010. 

August 3, 2010 - CANCELED 

July 27, 2010
“Executive Control vs. Bureaucratic Insulation: Evidence from Federal Contracting.” by Sanford C. Gordon, May 14, 2010. 

July 20, 2010 - CANCELED

July 13, 2010
“Biological Institutions: The Political Science of Animal Cooperation.” by Erol Akçay, Joan Roughgarden, James Fearon, John Ferejohn, Barry Weingast, May 12, 2010. 

July 6, 2010
“Corporate Lobbying and Financial Performance.” by Hui Chen, David Parsley, Ya-Wen Yang, April 28, 2010.

June 29, 2010
“Predatory States and the Market for Protection.” by Gary Cox, 2010. (attachment to be posted soon) 

June 22 - PE LUNCH CANCELED

June 15, 2010
“Commercial Imperialism? Political Influence and Trade During the Cold War.” by Daniel Berger, William Easterly, Nathan Nunn and Shanker Satyanath, February 2010. 

June 8, 2010
“The Provision of Local Public Goods: Analyzing Municipal Bond Elections.” by Jacob S. Rugh, Jessica Trounstine, March, 2010.

June 1, 2010
“Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India.” by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Maitreesh Ghatak, and Jeanne Lafortune, May, 2010.

May 25, 2010
“An Empirical Analysis of the Gender Gap in Mathematics.” by Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Steven D. Levitt, July, 2010.

May 18, 2010
“Partisan Financial Cycles.” by J. Lawrence Broz, April 18, 2010.

May 11, 2010
“Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange.” by Oliver Falck, Stephan Heblich, Alfred Lameli, and Jens Suedekum, February, 2010.

May 4, 2010
“The Political Economy of Imperialism, Decolonization, and Development.” by Erik Gartzke and Dominic Rohner, April, 2010.

April 27, 2010
“A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis.” by Deniz Iagn, Prachi Mishra and Thierry Tressel, December 4, 2009.

April 6, 2010
“Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions.” by James Fenske, November, 2009.

March 30, 2010
“State Capacity, Conflict and Development.” by Timothy J. Besley and Torsten Persson, June, 2009.

March 23, 2010
“Persistent Fighting to Forestall Adverse Shifts in the Distribution of Power.” by Robert Powell, September 25, 2009.

March 16, 2010
“Strategic Opposition and Government Cohesion in Westminster Democracies.” by Torun Dewan and Arthur Spirling, February 19, 2010.

March 9, 2010- PE Lunch canceled.

March 2, 2010
“The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform Congressmen?” by Sarah Anzia and Christopher Berry, August 5, 2009.

February 23, 2010
“Media and Polarization” by Filipe R. Kampante and Daniel A. Hojman, December 2009.

February 16, 2010
“Caste and Punishment: The Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement” by Karla Hoff, Mayuresh Kshetramade, and Ernst Fehr, September 2009.

February 9, 2010
“A Re-evaluation of Ideas, Interests and Politics in Repeal: The Case of the Belgian Corn Laws, 1834-1873” by Maarten Van Dijck and Tom Truyts, 2009.

February 2, 2010
P.E. Lunch is cancelled for this date.

January 26, 2010
“Inferring Strategic Voting” by Kei Kawai and Yasutora Watanabe, May 2009.

January 19, 2010
“The German Elections in the 1870's: Why Germany Turned from Liberalism to Protectionism” by Sibylle H. Lehmann, October 2009.

January 12, 2010
“Rational Choice and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Union Representation Elections” by Henry S. Farber, October 12, 2009.

December 22, 2009
“The Incidence of Civil War: Theory and Evidence” by Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson, 2009.

December 15, 2009
“Instruments of Development: Randomization in the Tropics, and the Search for the Elusive Keys to Economic Development” by Angus S. Deaton, January 2009.

"Lab Experiments Are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences" by Armin Falk and James J. Heckman, October 23, 2009.

December 8, 2009
“Commitment Problems and Shifting Power as a Cause of Conflict” by Robert Powell, Nov. 6, 2009.

December 1, 2009
“Party Affiliation, Partisanship, and Political Beliefs: A Field Experiment” by Alan S. Gerber, Gregory A. Huber, and Ebonya Washington, Sept. 2009.

November 24, 2009
“Political Institutions and Sovereign Borrowing: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Argentina” by Sebastian M. Saiegh.

November 17, 2009
“Do Better Paid Politicians Perform Better? Disentangling Incentives from Selection” by Stefano Gagliarducci and Tommaso Nannicini, Sept. 2009.

November 10, 2009
“Is Modern Macro or 1978-era Macro More Relevant to the Understanding of the Current Economic Crisis” by Robert J. Gordon, August 2009.

November 3, 2009
“Civil War Termination” by James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, September 2007.

October 27, 2009
"The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence from an Historical Experiment" by Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, July 2009.

October 20, 2009
“Terrorist Factions,” by Ethan Bueno de Mesquita

October 13, 2009
“The Real Swing Voter's Curse,” by James A. Robinson, Ragnar Torvik

October 6, 2009
“Ottoman De-industrialization 1800-1913: Assessing the Shock, Its Impact and the Response,” by Sevket Pamuk, Jeffrey G. Williamson

September 29, 2009
“Diaspora Bonds and Cross Border Capital,” by David Leblang

September 22, 2009
“Integrated Political Strategy,” by John M. de Figueiredo

September 15, 2009
“Policymakers' Horizon and Economic Reforms,” by Paola Conconi, Giovanni Facchini, Maurizio Zanardi

September 8, 2009
“Empirics of Strategic Interdependence: The Case of the Racial Tipping Point,” by William Easterly

September 1, 2009
“Strategic Uncertainty as a Cause of War”, by Adam Meirowitz and Anne E. Sartori

August 11, 2009
“The President and the Distribution of Federal Spending”, by Christopher R. Berry, Barry C. Burden, and William G. Howell

August 4, 2009
“Defying the Law of Gravity: The Political Economy of International Migration”, by David Leblang, Jennifer Fitzgerald, and Jessica Teets

July 21, 2009
“Can Lobbying Prevent Anticompetitive Outcomes? Evidence on Consumer Monopsony in Telecommunications”, by Dino Falaschetti

July 28, 2009
“Explaining Agricultural Distortion Patterns: The Roles of Ideology, Inequality, Lobbying and Public Finance”, by Pushan Dutt and Devashish Mitra