#  Seminars: Political Economy 

 



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SortAlberto Alesina Seminar on Political Economy**Term:**  Spring 2026**Location:** Room M-16, 1805 Cambridge st, Littauer Center, Cambridge, MA 02138**Meeting Time: Thursdays - 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM****Description:** Co-sponsored by FAS and IQSS, The Program on Positive Political Economy (PPE) supports research-related activities that integrate the study of economics and politics, whether by studying economic behavior in the political process or political behavior in the marketplace. In general, positive political economy is concerned with showing how observed differences among institutions affect political and economic outcomes in various social, economic, and political systems and how the institutions themselves change and develop in response to individual and collective beliefs, preferences, and strategies.

**List Serve/Announcements:** [**Click Here to Subscribe**](https://web.lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/politicalecon-seminar-list)

**Contact:** [Eliza Rakaseder](mailto:erakaseder@fas.harvard.edu)





SortDATESPEAKERTITLEFeb 5th, 2026 

[Elizabeth Kempf](https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=878441) (HBS)

["The Political Polarization of Corporate America"](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:5b34faef-f59a-44ea-8c63-94645717ca7d)

Feb 12th, 2026

[David Weinstein](https://www.davideweinstein.com/) (Columbia University)

["Martyrs, Morale, and Militarism: The Political Impact of Devastation and Slaughter"](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:a1dad928-1ba8-479c-b5b5-6eec3a657c23)

Feb 19th, 2026

[Victoria Mooers](https://vmooers.github.io/) (University of Chicago)

["Social Networks and Voter Information"](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:7616f244-148d-420d-b690-f76bdeca706f)



Feb 26th, 2026

[Elias Papaioannou](https://www.london.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-profiles/p/papaioannou-e) (London Business School)

"The Industrial Revolution and Forced Labor in Colonial Africa” (with Julian Marenz and Stelios Michalopoulos)

March 5th, 2026

[Gautam Nair](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/gautam-nair) (HKS)

["Group-targeted wealth transfers reduce inequality and intergroup conflict but trigger policy backlash."](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:47ed00b0-a426-44e4-ab5d-245e204797ff)

March 12th, 2026

[Jake Brown](https://www.bu.edu/polisci/profile/jacob-brown/) (Boston University)

["The Effect of Childhood Environment on Political Behavior: Evidence from Young U.S. Movers, 1992-2021"](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:08487414-d538-472f-a9d6-c77589db0ab0)

March 26th, 2026

[Noam Yuchtman](https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/noam-yuchtman) (London School of Economics)

"Legal Therapy: Coercion, the Courts, and Structural Transformation in China."

April 2nd, 2026

[Avidit Acharya](https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/people/avidit-acharya) (Stanford University)

["Motivated Reasoning and Information Aggregation."](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:39577983-1df9-4d72-be4a-15cec8fab8ce)

April 9th, 2026

[Andrew Hall](https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/people/andrew-hall) (Stanford University)

["Investing in Political Expertise: The Remarkable Scale of Corporate Policy Teams"](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:e4a0e854-8ff2-443b-a001-ff7f812f2015)

April 16th, 2026

[John Duggan](https://www.sas.rochester.edu/eco/people/faculty/duggan_john/index.html) (University of Rochester)

"Multidimensional Elections" (co-authored with Avidit Acharya)

April 23rd, 2026

[Tara Slough](https://taraslough.github.io/) (NYU)

["Bureaucratic Incentives and Data Production: Evidence from Social Registries"](https://taraslough.github.io/assets/pdf/registers.pdf)

April 30th, 2026

[Greg Martin](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/gregory-j-martin) (Stanford University)

["Agenda Setting and Market Power in Online News"](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:64283ce8-2078-414f-a454-f6e1987dd7b3)