Alesina Seminar on Political Economy

Speaker & Title Mehdi Shadmehr (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Abstract TBA

Speaker & Title Emily Blanchard (Dartmouth College) Abstract TBA

Speaker & Title Romain Wacziarg (UCLA), "Malthusian Migrations" Abstract For most of human history, until the fertility transition, technological progress translated into larger populations, preventing sustained improvements in living standards. We argue...

Speaker & Title Joyee Deb (New York University), "Similarity of Information in Games" Abstract Algorithmic targeting increasingly exposes like-minded people to the same information. How does this homogenization affect behavior in strategic settings? We...

Speaker & Title Dan Mattingly (Yale), "AI Slopaganda and Its Limits" Abstract There is growing concern that AI-generated propaganda, or “slopaganda,” can sway political views. Does the pro-CCP messaging embedded in popular Chinese AI models persuade...

Speaker & Title Andrea Galeotti (London Business School), "Small-Group Interactions Reduce Homophily by Muting Directed Search" Abstract We study how the quasi-random assignment of MBA students to different peer groups shapes their homophily by gender and...

Speaker & Title Elliott Ash (ETH Zürich), "The Joe Rogan Effect: Politicized Podcasts and the Youth Gender Voting Gap" (with Sergio Galletta, Federico Masera, Lehan Zhang) Abstract Online creators have become a central source of political information for...

Speaker & Title Adam Berinsky (MIT), "Persuasion through the use of human–artificial intelligence dialogues" Abstract There is great public concern about the potential use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for political persuasion and the...

Speaker & Title Marco Tabellini (Harvard), "Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution" Abstract In this paper, we provide systematic evidence in support of the long-standing hypothesis that taxation was an important driver of the French Revolution. We...

Speaker & Title Stephen Chaudoin (Harvard), "Persuasion and Backlash from International Law in Global Swing States" (w/Taegyun Lim) Abstract When countries or international organizations accuse others of violating international law, they often seek to...