The Political Economy of Social Conflict

October 16-17, 2015, 28 Hillhouse Avenue, Room 106

The conference is free and open to the public.
All papers are password protected.

Conference Program

Friday October 16, 2015

1:15pm - 1:30pm: Opening Remarks

Session 1

1:30pm - 3:00pm:  Violent Conflict and Its Aftermath
Moderator: TIMOTHY GUINNANE (Yale University)

STERGIOS SKAPERDAS (UC Irvine)
Guns, Lawyers, and Markets: Economic Consequences of Costly Conflict

MARK DINCECCO (University of Michigan)
The Economic Legacy of Warfare: Evidence from Urban Europe”

LAURA MAYORAL (Barcelona)
Multiple Threats to Peace: Size Matters, But Not In the Way You Think (with Debraj Ray)

3:00pm - 3:30pm: Coffee Break

Session 2

3:30pm - 5:00pm: Electoral Politics
Moderator: FRANCESCA TRIVELLATO (Yale University)

ROHINI PANDE (Harvard Kennedy School)
Value for money? Vote-buying and politician accountability in the laboratory (with Jessica Leight and Laura Ralston)

FRANCESCO TREBBI (UBC) 
A Theory of Minimalist Democracy (with Chris Bidner and Patrick Francois)

7:00pm: Dinner

Saturday, October 17, 2015

8:15am - 9:00am: Breakfast

Session 3

9:00am - 10:30am: Institutions Mitigating Social Conflict
Moderator: NAOMI LAMOREAUX (Yale University)

JAKOB SCHNEEBACHER (Yale University)
State Formation and Social Conflict: The Political Economy of the Swiss Old Confederacy

CHRISTELLE FISCHER-BOVET (USC)
Social Conflict in Hellenistic Egypt: Mediation and Economic Consequences

ELI BERMAN (UCSD)
Expanding Governance as Development: Evidence on Child Nutrition in the Philippines (with Mitch Downey and Joseph Felter)

10:30am - 11:00am: Coffee Break

Session 4

11:00am - 12:30pm: Long-Run Consequences of Ethnic Conflict
Moderator: ERIC WEESE (Yale University)

STELIOS MICHALOPOULOS (Brown University)
The Long-Run Effect of the Scramble for Africa (with Elias Papaioannou)

LEONARD WANTCHEKON (Princeton University) 
Critical Junctures: Independence Movements and Democracy in Africa (with Omar Garcia Ponce)

MARTA REYNAL-QUEROL (Pompeu Fabra University)
Ethnic Diversity and Development: Revisiting the Evidence

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch

Session 5

1:30pm - 3:00pm: Religious Groups and Conflict
Moderator: JOSÉ ANTONIO ESPÍN SÁNCHEZ ((Yale University)

SRIYA IYER (University of Cambridge)
Religious Riots and Electoral Politics in India (with Anand Shrivastava)

MOHAMED SALEH (Toulouse School of Economics)
On the Road to Heaven: Self-Selection, Religion, and Socioeconomic Status