HHDI-NIDE Joint Workshop on Cultural Transmission and Persistence
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.
Keynote Speakers
Ingela Alger is a CNRS Senior Researcher in Economics at the Toulouse School of Economics, and an Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy. She has been heavily invested in the construction and management of the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, for which she was first the Director of the Biology Programme (2012-2018), then Scientific Director (2020-2021), and then Director (2021-2024). In 2022 she received the CNRS Silver Medal.
She is particularly interested in the evolutionary foundations of morality and distributional preferences, as well as preferences guiding family-related behaviors. Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences among others.
Sara Lowes is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. She is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an Affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar with the Institutions, Organizations & Growth research program, an Affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and an Affiliate of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA).
Her research interests are at the intersection of development economics, political economy, and economic history and her work has been published in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences among others.
Provisional Program
Venue: Queen’s Business School, Student Hub, Harvard Lecture Theatre
Wednesday: June 11
19:30
Get Together Dinner at Cutters Warf
Thursday: June 12
9:00 – 9:30
Breakfast/Coffee
Session 1: Norms and Gender Discrimination
9:30 – 10:10
Norms, Laws, and the Political Economy of Gender Equality (Maurizio Bussolo – World Bank)
10:10 -10:50
Domestic Violence Laws and Social Norms: Evidence from Pakistan (Selim Gulesci – Trinity College Dublin)
10:50 – 11:30
Escaping Patriarchy: Familial Insularity and Gender Attitudes in Oman (Munir Squires – University of British Columbia)
11:30 – 12:00
Coffee Break
12:00 – 13:00
Keynote Talk: On the Co-existence of Morality and Spite: Evolutionary Theory and Experimental Evidence (Ingela Alger – Toulouse School of Economics)
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch – Lecture Room 3 (Riddel Hall)
Session 2: Determinants, Family and Gender Norms
14:00 – 14:40
Ancestral Beliefs and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa (Pablo Alvarez Aragon – University of Namur)
14:40 – 15:20
Slavery, Sugar, and Family Structure (Graziella Bertocchi – University of Modena & EIEF)
15:20 – 16:00
The Social Image Cost of Motherhood. Evidence from the Movie Industry (Debroise Auguste – University of Namur)
16:00 – 16:20
Coffee Break
Session 3: Ideology and Motivation
16:20 – 17:00
“Luxury beliefs”: Signaling through ideology? (Margaret Samahita – University College Dublin)
17:00 – 17:40
AI, Monitoring Aversion and the Evolution of Intrinsic Motivation (Gonzalo Olcina – University of Valencia, ERI-CES)
19:30
Workshop Dinner: Deans at Queens
Friday: June 13
9:00 – 9:30
Breakfast/Coffee
Session 1: Norms, Institutions and Political Representation
9:30 – 10:10
Shocks, Cultural Norms, and Intergenerational Change: A Model of Social Interactions and Vertical Transmission (Emma Thill – University of Luxemburg)
10:10 – 10:50
Explaining the Change of Fundamental Values and Norms (Stefan Voight – University of Hamburg)
10:50 – 11:30
The Effects of Coerced Sterilization Among American Indian Women (Arcangelo Dimico – Queen’s University Belfast)
11:30 – 12:00
Coffee Break
12:00 – 13:00
Keynote Talk: TBD (Sara Lowes – University of California San Diego)
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch – Lecture Room 3 (Riddel Hall)
Session 2: Shocks and Change of Norms
14:00 – 14:40
Serving Countries, Shaping Views (Giacomo De Luca – Free University of Bolzano)
14:40 – 15:20
French Colonialism and Long-term Economic Development in Vietnam (Anh Nguyen – UCLA Anderson School of Management)
15:20 – 15:40
Coffee Break
Session 3: Preferences and Religion
15:40 – 16:20
Chronos and Kairos: Concepts of Time and Economic Development (Jacopo Ballabio – University of California, Los Angeles)
16:20 – 17:00
Pilgrims and Crusaders: Religion as a Political Double-Edged Sword (Tommaso Colussi – Catholic University of Milan)
19:30
Workshop Dinner: Mourne Seafood Bar
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 organizing committee: Arcangelo Dimico (QUB), Anthony Ziegelmeyer (QUB), Selim Gulesci (TCD), Fabrice Kampfen (UCD)
Contact: hhdi@qub.ac.uk
Health and Human Development Initiative 