Regional Inequality and Innovation Workshop
June 6–7, 2025
This workshop is closed to the public and is by invitation only.
This workshop brings together a small group of leading scholars who work on the transition to the knowledge economy and the new politics of spatial inequality. The goal of the workshop is to collectively develop a better understanding of the causes and consequences of “region-biased technological change”, and why it takes such different national forms.
Program
Presenters have twenty minutes each. All sessions are held at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.
Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS)
Knafel Building, Room K107
1737 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
[ Map ]
Friday, June 6
1:00PM–2:00PM / Lunch
2:00PM-4:30PM / Panel 1
- Chair: Peter Hall (Harvard)
- “The European Innovation Problem: Can First Mover Innovation be Reconciled with low Inequality?”
Michael Storper (LSE and UCLA) - “Fragmenting and Realigning Party Competition in the Knowledge Economy: Implications for Long-run Growth Coalitions”
Jane Gingrich (Oxford) - “The Politics of Region-Biased Technological Change: A Coalitional Perspective”
Caterina Chiopris (Harvard and Columbia)
Torben Iversen (Harvard)
David Soskice (LSE)
7:00PM / Dinner
Harvest
44 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
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Saturday, June 7
9:30AM–12:00PM / Panel 2
- Chair: Caterina Chiopris (Harvard and Columbia)
- “Left Behind? Economic Divergence and Political Cleavages in the United States”
Jonathan Rodden (Stanford University) - “The Curse of Malapportionment: Spatial Inequalities, Representation, and Inefficient Redistribution”
Melissa Rogers (Claremont Graduate University) - “Cities Beyond Reach? Inequality and Representation in Fragmented Societies”
Andreas Wiedemann (Princeton)
12:00PM–1:00PM / Lunch
1:00PM–3:00PM / Panel 3
- Chair: Torben Iversen (Harvard)
- “The Political Geography of Discontent: Historical Turnout Decline and the Rise of Populism in Europe”
Pablo Beramendi (Duke) - “Market Power and Distorted Democracy in the Progressive Era”
Kenneth Scheve (Yale) - Themes and debates for the future
Peter Hall (Harvard)
Participants
- Pablo Beramendi, Chair; Professor, Department of Political Science, Duke University.
- Caterina Chiopris, Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University (Fall 2025).
- Jane Gingrich, Professor, Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI), University of Oxford.
- Edward L. Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Harvard University.
- Peter A. Hall, Faculty Associate. Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, Department of Government, Harvard University.
- Jonathan Rodden, Professor, Department of Political Science; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Stanford University.
- Melissa Rogers, Associate Professor, Politics & Policy, School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation; Co-Director, Inequality and Policy Research Center, Claremont Graduate University.
- Kenneth Scheve, Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs, Department of Political Science; FAS Dean of Social Science, Yale University.
- David Soskice, Emeritus Professor; Fellow of the British Academy, Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Michael Storper, Professor of Economic Geography, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science; Distinguished Professor of Regional and International Development, Urban Planning Department, University of California Los Angeles.
- Andreas B. Wiedemann, Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Department of Politics, Princeton University.
Hotel Information
Harvard Square Hotel
110 Mt. Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA
(617) 864-5200
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Conveners
Torben Iversen
iversen@fas.harvard.eduResearch interests: Comparative political economy; politics of inequality and economic performance; modern welfare states; electoral politics; and applied formal theory.
