Political Economy Program Meeting
Organized by Laurent Bouton, Eliana La Ferrara, and Rohini Pande
October 17, 2025
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Riverfront Room, 40 Edwin Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA, Zoom
For each session other than the panel session: Authors 25 min.; Discussant 15 min.; Floor Q&A 20min
Thursday, October 16
6:00 pm
Group Dinner at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, Parkview Room
Friday, October 17
8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
9:00 am

Policy by Committee

Toomas Laarits, New York University
Ben Matthies, University of Notre Dame
Kaushik Vasudevan, Purdue University
Will Yang, Yale University

Discussant:
Matias Iaryczower, Princeton University and NBER
10:00 am
Break
10:15 am

Partisan Fed

Andrea Pagliuca, London Business School

Discussant:
Elisabeth Kempf, Harvard University and NBER
11:15 am
Break
11:30 am

The Logic of State Surveillance

Gemma Dipoppa, Columbia University and NBER
Annalisa Pezone, New York University
11:45 am

McCarthyism, Media, and Political Repression: Evidence from Hollywood

Tianyi Wang, University of Toronto and NBER
Hui Ren Tan, National University of Singapore
12:00 pm

Horizontal Exchange on WhatsApp has Political Effects: Experimental Evidence from an Indian Election

Kevin Carney, University of Michigan
12:15 pm

When Political Connections Backfire: Social Protests, Asset Damage, and Firms' Response

Navid Neshat, Tulane University
12:30 pm
Lunch - Charles Suites
1:30 pm

Redistricting with Endogenous Candidates

Paola Moscariello, Yale University

Discussant:
Ethan Kaplan, University of Maryland, College Park and NBER
2:30 pm
Break
2:45 pm

Family Connections, Nepotism, and Political Bargaining

Yuri Barreto, Bocconi University
Diogo Britto, Bocconi University
Alexandre A. Fonseca, Federal Revenue of Brazil
Manoel Gehrke, University of Pisa
Paolo Pinotti, Bocconi University
Breno Sampaio, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Discussant:
Emanuele Colonnelli, University of Chicago and NBER
3:45 pm
Break
4:00 pm

Paying Not to Know: News Avoidance in Times of War

Ro’ee Levy, Tel Aviv University
Moses Shayo, Hebrew University
Guy Yanay, Hebrew University

Discussant:
Ceren Baysan, University of Toronto and NBER
5:00 pm
Adjourn