# 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 \[ [Map](https://maps.app.goo.gl/zkbmVxykigM5n4GX8) \] ### 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 \[ [Map](https://maps.app.goo.gl/JdpfQhSFawPpD6Mz6) \] ### 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**](https://scholars.duke.edu/person/pablo.beramendi), Chair; Professor, Department of Political Science, Duke University. - [**Caterina Chiopris**](https://www.caterinachiopris.com/), Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University (Fall 2025). - [**Jane Gingrich**](https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/people/jane-gingrich), Professor, Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI), University of Oxford. - [**Edward L. Glaeser**](https://glaeser.scholars.harvard.edu/), Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Harvard University. - [**Peter A. Hall**](https://hall.scholars.harvard.edu/), Faculty Associate. Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, Department of Government, Harvard University. - [**Jonathan Rodden**](https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/people/jonathan-rodden), Professor, Department of Political Science; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Stanford University. - [**Melissa Rogers**](https://www.cgu.edu/people/melissa-rogers/), Associate Professor, Politics & Policy, School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation; Co-Director, Inequality and Policy Research Center, Claremont Graduate University. - [**Kenneth Scheve**](https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/kenneth-scheve), Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs, Department of Political Science; FAS Dean of Social Science, Yale University. - [**David Soskice**](https://www.lse.ac.uk/government/people/emeritus-academic-staff/david-soskice), Emeritus Professor; Fellow of the British Academy, Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science. - [**Michael Storper**](https://www.lse.ac.uk/geography-and-environment/people/academic-staff/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**](https://politics.princeton.edu/people/andreas-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 \[ [Map](https://maps.app.goo.gl/1iuFRjPubVQNc9ZC8) \] ## Conveners [### Torben Iversen ](/people/torben-iversen) Faculty Associate. Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Department of Government, Harvard University. **Research interests:** Comparative political economy; politics of inequality and economic performance; modern welfare states; electoral politics; and applied formal theory. ![Torben Iversen](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/wcfia/files/iversen_torben2.jpg?itok=yTX2p0Zz) See also:- [ Conferences ](/content-types/conferences) - [ 2025 ](/content-types/2025)