2nd HHDI-NIDE Joint Workshop on Persistence and Cultural Transmission
This workshop aims to provide a venue for the presentation and discussion of frontier research on the persistence and transmission of cultural traits like norms, preferences, beliefs, behaviours, and customs. It aims to bring together scholars working either on the theoretical or the empirical analysis of determinants and consequences of cultural persistence and transmission, to facilitate a dialogue, generate new ideas, and explore opportunities for collaboration.
The workshop will take place on Thursday, the 18th and Friday, the 19th of June 2026 in Belfast (UK) at the Queen’s Business School – Queen’s University Belfast.
The submission deadline is Tuesday, the 31st of March 2026, and acceptance decisions will be communicated by mid-April.
A link to the submission form is reported at the end of this page. Full papers and extended abstracts are accepted. The full paper should be sent before the workshop if an extended abstract is submitted.
There is no workshop fee. However, participants are expected to pay their own expenses for travelling and accommodation.
Lunch and dinner will be provided both days.
Keynote Speakers
Siwan Anderson is a Professor of Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics (VSE). Her primary research area is development economics, with a focus on gender, culture, and political economy. She is a co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics and a member of the Editorial Board of Ideas for India. She is a Faculty Associate of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), a fellow of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), an associate of Theoretical Research in Development Economics (ThReD), and a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
Patrick Francois is a Professor of Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics (VSE). Patrick’s main area of research is development economics with a particular interest in political economy. He is also interested in the effect of culture on economic development, social capital, and economic growth. He has been a co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics from 2011 to 2025 and an Associate Editor of the American Economic Review till 2025. He is a Senior Fellow of the Institutions, Organizations and Growth program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and Director of the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.
Provisional Programme
Thursday
09:00 09:30 Coffee
Kinship
09:30 10:05 Sutanuka Roy (Australian National University) – Toward an Understanding of Persistence of Kinship Norms with Deep Historical Origins
10:05 10:40 Kun Ma (Renmin University of China) – The Long Shadow of Forced Clearance: State Violence, Kinship, and Persistent Underdevelopment
10:40 11:15 Aldo Elizalde (QUB) – What Explains Intensive Kinship? Natural Environment, Religion, and the State.
11:15 11:45 Coffee
Norms and gender
11:45 12:20 Alejandra Ramos (Trinity College Dublin) – Coercive Control after Childbirth: Intimate Partner Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa
12:20 12:5 Jorge Garcia Hombrados (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) – Shifting the Value of Norms: Fast Internet, Premarital Sex, and the Erosion of Female Genital Mutilation
12:55 14:00 Lunch
Marriage and Labor Markets
14:00 14:35 Laura Munoz-Blanco (University of Exeter) – Quaking Childhoods, Early Wives: The Impacts of Forced Displacement on Marriage
14:35 15:10 Martina Viarengo (Geneva Graduate Institute) – The Gender Dimension of Refugees’ Integration in the Labor Market
15:10 15:45 Yogita Shamdasani (National University of Singapore) – Absent but Not Idle: the Social Roots of Demand for Flexible Work
15:45 16:15 Coffee
16:15 17:15 Keynote 1: Siwan Anderson – TBD
19:45 Dinner
Friday
09:00 09:30 Coffee
Social Norms
09:30 10:05 Natalia Pia Guerrero Trinidad (University of Minnesota) – Norms That Travel: The Role of Grassroots Institutions on Antisocial Behavior
10:05 10:40 Melchior Clerc (CERDI) – Facing Pressure, Choosing Distance: Female Genital Cutting and Girls’ Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa
10:40 11:15 James Fenske (University of Warwick) – A Century of Language Barriers to Migration in India
11:15 11:45 Coffee
Persistence
11:45 12:20 Riccardo Di Cato (UC San Diego) – Seeds of Market-Based Capitalism: Christian Missionaries and China’s Modernization
12:20 12:55 Francisco Eslava (Geneva Graduate Institute) – The Spanish Legacy in the US Southwest
12:55 14:00 Lunch
Culture Transmission & Persistence
14:00 14:35 Max Posch (University of Exeter) – Doux Commerce
14:35 15:10 Alexander Yarkin (UC Dublin) – Learning from the Origins
15:10 15:45 Arcangelo Dimico (QUB) – When Roots Diverge: Genes, Culture and Economic Development
15:45 16:15 Coffee
16:15 17:15 Keynote 2: Patrick Francois – TBD
19:45 Dinner
The workshop is funded by the Health and Human Development Initiative at the Queen’s Business School (QBS) and the Irish Economic Association Network for Irish-Based Development Economists (NIDE).
The organising committee: Arcangelo Dimico (QUB) and Aldo Elizalde (QUB)
Contact: a.dimico@qub.ac.uk
Health and Human Development Initiative 