The 2022 Kuznets Mini-Conference: Political Distortions and Economic Development
A conference featuring papers by young researchers on political economy considerations and consequences in economic development, hosted by the Economic Growth Center.
Held in conjunction with the 31st Kuznets Lecture, the Kuznets Mini-Conference on Political Distortions and Economic Development highlighted current work on themes relevant to the Kuznets lecture. The mini-conference was co-organized by Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University) and Nathan Canen (University of Houston), who is a co-author of Wantchekon's on papers related to political distortions and economic development.
Program Schedule
8:00 – 8:10am: Opening Remarks: Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University), 31st Annual Kuznets Memorial speaker
8:10 – 9:40am: Session 1 - Political Distortions: Theory
- Marina Azzimonti (Stony Brook University): “Political Constraints and Sovereign Default” (with Nirvana Mitra)
- Dana Foarta (Stanford University): “Market Competition and Political Influence: An Integrated Approach” (with Steven Callander and Takuo Sugaya)
- Gleason Judd (Princeton University): “Access to Proposers and Influence in Collective Policymaking”
9:40 - 10:00am: Coffee Break
10:00am – 11:30pm: Session 2 - Political Distortions: Empirics
- Salomé Baslandze (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta): “Connecting to Power: Political Connections, Innovation, and Firm Dynamics” (with Ufuk Akcigit and Francesca Lotti)
- Sabrin Beg (University of Delaware): “Tenancy and Clientelism”
- Nathan Canen (Houston University): “Political Uncertainty and the Forms of State Capture” (with Rafael Ch and Leonard Wantchekon)
11:30 - 12:15pm: Lunch
12:15 – 1:00pm: Panel on Research and Research Directions in Political Distortions and Economic Development
Panelists: Rohini Pande (Yale University), Gerard Padro I Miquel (Yale University), and Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University)
1:00pm – 2: Session 3 - Institutional Experimentation
- Cesi Cruz (University of California Los Angeles): “Making Policies Matter: Voter Responses to Campaign Promises” (with Philip Keefer, Julien Labonne and Francesco Trebbi)
- Yusuf Neggers (University of Michigan, visiting Yale): “Updating the State: Information Acquisition Costs and Public Benefit Delivery” (with Eric Dodge, Rohini Pande, and Charity Troyer Moore)
- Pierre Nguimkeu (Georgia State University): “Evaluating the Intrinsic Effect of Institutions: Theory and Evidence from Policy Deliberation Experiments” (with Yves Atchadé and Leonard Wantchekon)
- David Yang (Harvard University): “Policy Experimentation in China: The Political Economy of Policy Learning” (with Shaoda Wang)
2:30pm: Concluding Remarks