Nemmers Prize Conference

Welcome – Joel Mokyr (Northwestern University)

Session I: Rent-Seeking and Corruption
Chair: Francesco Caselli (London School of Economics)

Pierre Yared (Columbia University): Political Distortions and Endogenous Turnover (joint with Laurence Ales -  Carnegie-Mellon University - and Pricila Maziero -University of  Pennsylvania)

Gerard Padró i Miquel (London School of Economics): Corruption, Intimidation and Whistleblowing: A Theory of Optimal Intervention (joint with Sylvain Chassang - Princeton University)

Raymond Fisman (Columbia University) - commentator
Sandeep Baliga (Northwestern University) - commentator

Session II: Political Economy and Growth in Latin America
Chair: Kenneth Shepsle (Harvard University)

Melissa Dell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Insurgency and Long-Run Development: Lessons from the Mexican Revolution

Frederico Finan (University of California, Berkeley): Political Power and Long-Run Development: Evidence from Brazil's Regime Transition (joint with Claudio Ferraz - Pontifícia Universida de Católica do Rio de Janeiro)

Noel Maurer (Harvard University) - commentator
Robin Burgess (London School of Economics) - commentator

Keynote Address I
Alberto Alesina (Harvard University): Ethnicity and Development
Chair:  Guido Tabellini (Bocconi University)
This presentation is based, in part, on an unpublished paper Ethnic Inequality with Stelios Michalopoulos (Brown University) and Elias Papaioannou (Dartmouth College)

Session III: The Political Economy of European History
Chair: Joseph Ferrie (Northwestern University)

David Stasavage (New York University): Oligarchy and Growth: Lessons from Europe's Autonomous Cities

Mark Dincecco (IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies): State Capacity and Long Run Performance (joint with Gabriel Katz – IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies)

John Nye (George Mason University) - commentator
Jeremiah Dittmar (American University) - commentator

Session IV: Food, Famines, and Conflicts
Chair: Benjamin Jones (Northwestern University)

Nathan Nunn (Harvard University): The Impact of United States Food Aid on Civil War (joint with Nancy Qian - Yale University)

David Donaldson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Can Openness to Trade Reduce Income Volatility? Evidence from Colonial India's Famine Era (joint with Robin Burgess - London School of Economics)

James Feyrer (Dartmouth College) - commentator
Ross Levine (Brown University) - commentator

Keynote Address II:
Fabrizio Zilibotti (University of Zurich): Conflict and Social Capital in Economic Development
Chair: Kiminori Matsuyama (Northwestern University)
This presentation is based, in part, on the papers War Signals: A Theory of Trade, Trust and Conflict and Seeds of Distrust: Conflict in Uganda both with Dominic Rohner (University of Zurich) and Mathias Thoenig (University of Lausanne)

Session V: Political Economy and Economic Policy
Chair: Nico Voigtländer (University of California, Los Angeles)

Marco Battaglini (Princeton University): Growth and Fiscal Policy: a Positive Theory (joint with Levon Barseghyan - Cornell University)

Bård Harstad (Northwestern University): Experimentation in Federal Systems (joint with Steven Callander - Stanford University)

Guido Tabellini (Bocconi University) - commentator
David Austen-Smith (Northwestern University) - commentator

Session VI: The Very Long Run: From the Ancient Plough to the Modern Advertisement
Chair: Nicola Persico (Northwestern University)

Eliana LaFerrara (Bocconi University ): From Public Influence to Private Return: Evidence from the Italian Advertising Market (joint with Stefano DellaVigna - University of California, Berkeley, Ruben Durante - Sciences Po, and Brian Knight - Brown University)

Paola Giuliano (University of California, Los Angeles): On the Origin of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough (joint with Alberto Alesina and Nathan Nunn – both Harvard University)

Daniel Diermeier (Northwestern University) - commentator
Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University) - commentator

Closing Words – Elhanan Helpman (Harvard University)