Publications

Dimitris K Chronopoulos, Sotiris Kampanelis, Daniel Oto-Peralías, John O S Wilson, Ancient colonialism and the economic geography of the Mediterranean, Journal of Economic Geography, 2021 lbaa028, https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaa028 

Media: Greek National TV (ERT) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAYjRQwB-F4 , VOXeu https://voxeu.org/article/economic-impact-ancient-colonisation 

Sotiris Kampanelis, It’s time for Westernization: the advantages of the early start for long-term economic development at the local level, Oxford Economic Papers, Volume 71, Issue 4, October 2019, Pages 996–1025, https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpy064 

Working Papers

Songlines  (with Aldo Elizalde and Yannis M. Ioannides)

This paper examines the long-term economic impacts of the adoption of local knowledge during European colonisation. We use the case of Australia, where Aboriginal knowledge of the landscape was integral to colonial exploration and settlement. To quantify the effects of this knowledge, we construct a newly digitised and georeferenced dataset of trade routes created by Aboriginal people based on oral traditions, known as Songlines. Our results indicate that Aboriginal trade routes are strongly associated with current economic activity as measured by nighttime satellite imagery. We attribute this association to path dependence and agglomeration effects that emanate from the transport infrastructure built by Europeans roughly along these routes, which have agglomerated economic activity. Finally, by exploiting exogenous variation in optimal travel routes, we provide evidence that our results are not entirely determined by the inherent characteristics of Australian topography, but rather by Aboriginal knowledge.

Public good or public bad? Indigenous institutions and the demand for public goods (with Aldo Elizalde,  Eduardo Hidalgo, and Nayeli Salgado) (R&R at Journal of Development Economics)

This paper argues that the underprovision of public goods can be partly explained by lower demand from Indigenous groups with high preferences for Indigenous identity and a high capacity for coordination. Examining the post-Mexican  Revolution period (1920s-1950s), when the state used the first road network for nation-building, our diff-in-diff analysis shows that pre-colonial political centralisation is associated with less road infrastructure. This is attributed to stronger capacity for collective action and stronger Indigenous identity preferences. Finally, we show that poor road infrastructure today is linked to lower economic performance.

Lynching and Economic Opportunities: Evidence from the US South (with Aldo Elizalde) (R&R at Kyklos).

This paper examines the impact of historical lynching on the economic opportunities of Black individuals today. Results indicate that past lynchings have an adverse effect on the current economic opportunities of Black people, likely arising from persistent racial prejudice dating back to the early 20th century.  We emphasize the importance of rapid urbanization and population mixing in the US South post-1880, which led to heightened competition among racial groups for economic, social, and political prominence, ultimately resulting in a surge of lynchings. Our findings do not apply to Whites, Hispanics, Asians, or Native Americans and survive a series of robustness checks.

Finance and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from US Banking Reforms (with Dimitris K. Chronopoulos & John O. S. Wilson) (R&R at Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation).

We investigate the impact of US banking industry deregulation on intergenerational mobility at the local level. In order to do so, we use a quasi-natural experimental research design to investigate how a change in state-level bank competition (which followed the passage of the US Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act) affects the intergenerational mobility of individuals born to (poorer) families at the lower end of the income distribution. We find that individuals born to poor families who spend their first years as adults in an area with a more competitive banking system, experience higher mobility relative to counterparts located in areas characterized by lower levels of bank competition. The results of an investigation of underlying mechanisms suggest that increased educational opportunities via increased college attendance and more entrepreneurship are important factors underlying the observed increases in intergenerational mobility.

The origins of States and political economy (with Aldo Elizalde)

This paper exploits ancient navigation variation along the Mediterranean coasts as an exogenous factor for the development of the first-ever world states. Ancient Greek cities-states were the first socio-political establishments in the sense that populations were interacting with the local governments through voting and participating in social-political events. This research suggests that sea navigation played an important role in establishing such cities-states along the Mediterranean coast. Considering several parameters including wind patterns and islets, we develop a "rapprochement" measure for each 10km2 coastal area along the Mediterranean shore, and we find that higher values are associated with cities-states with more democratic institutions, higher economic prosperity, and longer sustainability. As a channel, we find that easy to access places had also a higher naval defense, and therefore higher probability to survive under economic, cultural, and political prosperity.

Other working papers

Sotiris Kampanelis, Human Beliefs and Intergenerational Mobility

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of local aggregate human psychology on upward economic mobility. More specifically, I investigate whether the higher concentration of fantasy-prone personalities at the local level affect the probability for a child whose parents’ income belongs to the lowest quintile of the national income distribution to receive income in the highest quintile as an adult.