Political Economy, MIE, M2
by M Nunez (1st part, 12 hrs) and A. Riboni (2nd part, 12 hrs)
Democratization Class 1
Acemoglu and Robinson, Economic Origin of Dictatorship and Democracy. Ch. 5.6 Cambridge University Press
Acemoglu, Political Economy Lecture Notes MIT (slides in class are based on ch 18)
Acemoglu, and Robinson (2000) “Why Did the West Extend the Franchise?” QJE
Acemoglu and Robinson, (2017) "Why Did the West Extend the Franchise? A Correction" mimeo
Acemoglu et al. 2015 Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality, Handbook Income Distribution
Aidt and Franck. 2015 Democratization Under the Threat of Revolution: Evidence From the Great Reform Act of 1832
Bruckner and Ciccone, 2011, Rain and the Democratic Window of Opportunity, Econometrica
Lizzeri, A and N Persico (2004), "Why Did the Elites Extend the Suffrage? Democracy and the Scope of Government, with an Application to Britain's 'Age of Reform'", QJE
Treisman, 2020, Democracy by Mistake: How the Errors of Autocrats Trigger Transitions to Freer Government, APSR
State and Nation Building Class 2
Alesina, Reich, Riboni (*), 2020, Nationalism, Nation Building and Wars, J. Ec. Growth
Alesina, Tabellini, Trebbi, 2017, Is Europe an Optimal Political Area, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
Shayo, 2009 (*), A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy, APSR
Shayo, 2019 Social Identity and Economic Policy
Johnson Koyama, States and economic growth: Capacity and constraints, 2017, Explorations in Economic History,
Besley, Timothy, and Torsten Persson. 2011. Section 2.1 Pillars of Prosperity. Princeton University Press
Sanchez de la Sierra, 2019, On the origin of the states: stationary bandits and taxation in Eastern Congo, Journal of Political Economy
Rohner and Zhuravskaya, 2023, Nation Building, Big Lessons from Successes and failures CEPR
Rohner and Zhuravskaya, 2025, The Economics of Nation Building Annual Reviews.
Cultural Economics, Trust and Cooperation Class 3
Tabellini Guido (*) 2008 The Scope of Cooperation, Value and Incentives, QJE
Alesina and Giuliano, 2015, Culture and Institutions, JEL
Alesina and La Ferrara, 2005, Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance, JEL
Aghion, Algan, Cahuc, Shleifer, 2010, Regulation and Distrust, QJE
Bisin and Verdier, 2011, The Economics of Cultural Transmission and Socialization, Handbook of Social Economics
Fernandez Fogli, 2009, An empirical investigation of beliefs, work and fertility, AEJ, macro
Esteban, Mayoral and Ray, 2012, Ethnicity and Confict, an empirical study, AER,
Vigdor, 2009, Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States, mimeo
Alesina, Miano, Stantcheva, 2019, The Polarization of Reality, mimeo
Alesina, Stantcheva Teso, 2019, Intergenerational Mobility and Preference for Redistribution, AER
Tajfel and Turner, 1986, The social identity theory of intergroup behavior
Carvalho, Bergeron, Henrich, Nunn, Weigel Zero-sum thinking, the evolution of effort-suppressing beliefs, and economic development, NBER wp
Chinoy, S, N Nunn, S Stantcheva, and S Sequeira (2022), “Zero-sum thinking and the roots of US political divides”. NBER wp
redistribution
Benabou and Tirole, 2005, Beliefs in a Just world and redistributive policy, QJE
Benabou and Ok, 2001 Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution, the PUOM Hypothesis, QJE
Alesina and Angeletos (*), 2005, Fairness and Redistribution, AER
Iversen Torben and Max Goplerud, 2018, Redistribution Without a Median Voter: Models of Multidimensional Politics Annual Review of Political Science
Roemer J. 1998. Why the poor do not expropriate the rich: an old argument in new garb. J. Public Econ. 70(3): 399–424