Research

Ongoing Work

• #MeToo...or not? Do salient shocks affect gender social norms? (single-authored, available here)

Awarded with the Denis Conniffe Prize 2023 for the best paper by a young economist 

Abstract: Previous research has documented the importance and persistence of social norms, but there is limited understanding of whether they can change in the short run. Utilizing data from Sweden and Denmark, this article addresses this gap by testing whether significant local shocks may push societies toward deviating from their social norm. In Sweden, the country was particularly shocked by allegations of sexual harassment against Jean-Claude Arnault on November 24, 2017, which led to salient discussions about systematic gender-related violence and harassment. This paper estimates the impact of the Jean Arnault scandal on attitudes toward women’s rights by exploiting survey data from the European Values Study. Using both a regression discontinuity and a difference-in-differences approach, I find a sharp improvement in Swedish attitudes toward women’s rights after the scandal, while no significant change is identified in Denmark. These contrasting results demonstrate how the absence of a significant local shock may explain the stability of social norms in similar countries.

• “I’ll have what the group is having”: How Social Norms Sensitivity affects Individual Behavior (single-authored, availiable here)

Abstract: Do personal values always drive individual behavior, or are there situations where social norms are more influential? I argue that as an individual’s norm sensitivity increases, that is, their propensity to adhere to social norms, the effect of their personal values on their behavior weakens. This study provides the first empirical evidence of individual differences in norm sensitivity using observational data from the World Values Survey across 59 countries and focusing on three behavioral domains (religious behavior, civic involvement, and pro-environmental behavior). I find that individuals with higher norm sensitivity are more likely to adhere to social norms, and for individuals with lower norm sensitivity, their personal values are more important in explaining their behavior. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering individual variation in norm sensitivity when designing effective behavioral interventions. In high sensitivity contexts, public commitment campaigns focusing on normative societal beliefs may be more effective, whereas in low sensitivity contexts, interventions targeting personal values (e.g., educational programs) may yield better results.

• Optimal Degree and Structure of Revenue Decentralization: A survey (with Jorge Martínez-Vázquez, Santiago Lago-Peñas and Cristian Sepúlveda)

Publications

• Lago, M.E., Samahita, M. & Doyle, O. (2025). "Unraveling gender norms: Social and personal norms in the preferential promotion of women." Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 115, 102336.

• Lago, M.E., Lago-Peñas, S. & Martinez-Vazquez, J. (2024). "On the effects of intergovernmental grants: a survey. " Int Tax Public Finance, 31, 856–908. 

• Lago, M.E., Lago-Peñas, S. & Martinez-Vazquez, J. (2024). "Side Effects in Designing Intergovernmental Grants." OECD Background Paper.

• Lago, M.E. & Lago, I. (2021). "From the Brady Bunch to Gilmore girls: The effect of household size on economic voting." American Politics Research, 49(4), 400–411.

Honors and Awards

• Irish Research Council Scholarship 

2023-2025

• Denis Conniffe Prize for the best paper by a young economist

IEA 2023  

“#MeToo...or not? Do salient shocks affect gender social norms?”

• Cormac O'Grada Award for best transfer seminar 

UCD School of Economics 2023