Maria Petrova

I am a Professor of Economics and ICREA Research Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Political Economy and Governance (IPEG), and an Affiliate Professor at Barcelona School of Economics, I am also a Research Fellow at CEPR. In 2008-2022, I've also been Assistant/Associate Professor at the New Economic School. 

I am a member of the Board of Directors (2021-) and Editorial Board (2016-) at the Review of Economic Studies. In 2016-2023, I was also a Co-Editor of the Journal of Public Economics.

I recently got a European Research Council Starting Grant for a five-year project EXTREME ("The Rise and Fall of Populism and Extremism") for 2019-2024.

I received my PhD from Harvard University in 2008. I spent 2012 - 2013 as a Visiting Associate Research Scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University. My research interests include political economy, mass media economics, and corporate governance.

CV (Jan 2023)

My Google Scholar Page

Refereed Publications

Mass media

“Inequality and Media Capture”, Journal of Public Economics, February 2008, 92 (1-2) , pp. 183-212

“Newspapers and Parties: How Advertising Revenue Created an Independent Press”, [Online Appendix], American Political Science Review, November 2011, 105(4), pp.790-808. (c) American Political Science Association 

“Media and Political Persuasion: Evidence from Russia” (with Ruben Enikolopov and Katia Zhuravskaya), [Online Appendix], [Data], American Economic Review, December 2011, 111(7): 3253-85    

“Mass Media and Special Interest Groups”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, September 2012, 84(1), pp. 17-38

“Cross-Border Media and Nationalism: Evidence from Serbian Radio in Croatia” (with Stefano DellaVigna, Ruben Enikolopov, Vera Mironova, and Katia Zhuravskaya), [Online Appendix], [Data], American Economic Journals: Applied Economics, July 2014, 6(3): 103–132

“Radio and the Rise of Nazis in Pre-War Germany” (with Maja Adena, Ruben Enikolopov, Veronica Santarosa, and Katia Zhuravskaya), [Online Appendix], [Data], Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2015, 130: 1885-1939

“ Social Media and Corruption” (with Ruben Enikolopov and Konstantin Sonin),  American Economic Journals: Applied Economics, January 2018, 10(1): 150-174 [VoxEU column]

“Social Media and Protest Participation: Evidence from Russia” (with Ruben Enikolopov and Alexey Makarin), Econometrica, July 2020, 88 (4): 1479–1514

“Political Effects of the Internet and Social Media” (with Ruben Enikolopov and Katia Zhuravskaya), Annual Review of Economics, August 2020, 12: 415-438

“Social Media and Political Donations: New Technology and Incumbency Advantage in the United States” (with Ananya Sen and Pinar Yildirim), Management Science, May 2021, 67(5), pp. 2657-3320, iii-iv

Political Economy

“Evolution of Risk and Political Regimes” (with Robert H. Bates), [Online Appendix], Economics and Politics, July 2012, 24(2), pp.200-225

"Field Experiment Estimate of Electoral Fraud in Russian Parliamentary Elections" (with Vasily Korovkin,  Ruben Enikolopov, Konstantin Sonin, and Alexei Zakharov), [Data], Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2013, 110(2): 448-452.

“Divided We Stay Home: Social Distancing and Ethnic Diversity” (with Georgy Egorov, Ruben Enikolopov, and Alexey Makarin),  [CEPR DP][NBER WP], Journal of Public Economics, February 2021, 194(C), 104328

“Are Political and Charitable Giving Substitutes? Evidence from the United States”(with Ricardo Perez-Truglia, Andrei Simonov, and Pinar Yildirim), [CEPR DP][NBER WP], forthcoming in Management Science

Corporate Governance

“Firm Value in Crisis: Effects of Firm-Level Transparency and Country-Level Institutions” (with Ruben Enikolopov and Sergey Stepanov),  Journal of Banking and Finance, September 2014, 46: 72-84

“Politics, Instability, and International Investment Flows” (with Art Durnev, Ruben Enikolopov, and Veronica Santarosa), Journal of Corporate Finance, February 2015, 30: 299-324

Working Papers

"Socializing Alone: How Online Homophily Has Undermined Social Cohesion in the US" (with Ruben Enikolopov, Gianluca Russo, and David Yanagizawa-Drott), February 2024

“Automation, Career Values, and Political Outcomes" (with Gregor Schubert, Bledi Taska, and  Pinar Yildirim), February 2024

“Social Media and Xenophobia: Evidence from Russia” (with Leonardo Bursztyn, Georgy Egorov, and  Ruben Enikolopov), January 2024 [CEPR DP][NBER WP]

“Bombs, Broadcasts and Resistance: Allied Intervention and Domestic Opposition to the Nazi Regime during World War II” (with  Maja Adena, Ruben Enikolopov, and Hans-Joachim Voth), March 2021 [CEPR DP]

“The Dracula Effect: Voter Information and Trade Policy” (with Giacomo Ponzetto and Ruben Enikolopov), October 2020 [CEPR DP]

“Social image, Networks, and Protest Participation,” (with Ruben Enikolopov, Alexey Makarin, and Leonid Polishchuk), April 2020

“Information and Communication Technologies, Protests, and Censorship,” (with Maxim Ananyev, Dimitrios Xefteris, and  Galina Zudenkova), August 2019

"The Effect of Citizen United on U.S. State and Federal Elections" (with Andrei Simonov and Jim Snyder), February 2019

Non-refereed publications

“Mass Media and Its Influence on Behavior” (with Ruben Enikolopov),  in Els Opuscles del CREI, 2017

 “Media Capture: Empirical Evidence” (with Ruben Enikolopov), in Handbook of Media Economics, eds. Anderson, Simon, Joel Waldfogel, and David Strömberg, 2016, North-Holland, pp. 687-700

 “Media Persuasion, Ethnic Hatred, and Mass Violence: a Brief Overview of Recent Research Advances” (with David Yanagizawa-Drott), ch. 12, in Economics of Genocide, Mass Killing, and Their Prevention, eds. Anderton, Charles, and Jurgen Brauer, 2016, Oxford University Press 

"Media Capture Outside Advanced Democracies," in Comparative Democratization APSA Newsletter, October 2015

“Political Economy of Media Capture,” in Information and Public Choice: From Media Markets to Policy Making, ed. by Roumeen Islam, World Bank, 2008.         pp.121-138 

Work in progress

“The Long Run Impact of Corporal Punishment in Schools" (with Gautam Rao and Brian Wheaton)

"Homophily and the Formation of Online Social Networks" (with Ruben Enikolopov and Adam Szeidl)