Barton Lee

Fascinating paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social, @bartonelee2.bsky.social, and Hasin Yousaf!
The paper addresses a fundamental question: Why do some democracies chronically avoid ambitious, long-term reforms even when they have decent institutions?
They argue that what matters is not only

3. Delgado-Vega, Álvaro, and @bartonelee2.bsky.social. 2024. ‘When Growth Leads to Zero-Sum Conflict’. t.co/MjBZ9BUCI3

My three favourite papers on the political economy of zero-sum politics (aside from the well-known Chinoy et al. paper).
1. @snageebali.bsky.social, Maximilian Mihm, and Lucas Siga. 2025. ‘The Political Economy of Zero-Sum Thinking’. Econometrica 93(1): 41–70. t.co/LoCepP3L1L

Home Australian Political Economy Network

🚨Announcing the 2025

Australian Political Economy Workshop (APEN 2025)

18 November, @unswecon.bsky.social

‪@lalthoff.bsky.social‬, @kathrynbaragwanath.bsky.social, P Bhattacharya, R Dahis, @anjaprummer.bsky.social , D Strömberg, L Welnner

REGISTER AT sites.google.com/view/apenetw...

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Economics | AGSM - UNSW Sydney The UNSW Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Economics will focus your research in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, econometrics and applied economic analysis.

🚨 Applications to our PhD program starting January 2026 close on July 31 🗓️

Fully funded scholarship for a 1 year Master’s coursework + 3.5 year research in our School.

A 🧵 on our PhD program and school. (1/7)

Program and application info 👇

www.unsw.edu.au/business/stu...

Workshop on the Political Economy of Autocratic Rule & Democratic Backsliding Workshop on the Political Economy of Autocratic Rule & Democratic Backsliding, Toulouse, TSE/IAST Building, June 23–24, 2025.

Why is democracy so fragile—and autocracy so resilient?
📅June 23-24

Line-up: @bartonelee2.bsky.social @janeesberg.bsky.social @felixhaass.bsky.social @mattingly.bsky.social @monikanalepa.bsky.social @aspaglayan.bsky.social &+

ℹ️ www.iast.fr/conferences/...

Applications still open for the 2025 @ubeconomics.bsky.social on "The Political Economy of Immigration."

☀️ 30 June – 4 July, 2025 | Barcelona

📅 Deadline: June 15th

Lecturers: @andreassteinmayr.net and @tsurovtseva.bsky.social.

More info: www.ub.edu/school-econo... #EconSky #polisky

Great workshop on Democracy at @ethz.ch in collaboration with the @cepr.org. Food for thoughts with a view!
@bnjmnblmnthl.bsky.social @bartonelee2.bsky.social

Good paper. Makes a lot of sense of recent political dynamics.

📌 Excited to announce the 2nd Northeast Political Economy Conference 📌 We (briangknight.bsky.social) are seeking submissions from economists & political scientists working on political economy topics.

Please submit by June 16 and join us at Brown on Friday, Oct 3 forms.gle/i4wi88Q6P3tJ...

Stellar health economists who want to build a world-class lab in Zurich, see here 👉

Health economics in a broad sense 😉

Professor of Health Economics

Come join me in Zurich! We’re hiring a Professor of Health Economics (deadline April 30).

DM me if you have any questions about our department, ETH 🏫, or Switzerland🇨🇭

ethz.ch/en/the-eth-z...

From the other platform:

The myth that “education” will defeat populism and strengthen democracy is dangerous and is an internal threat to democratic resilience. We won’t save liberal democracy by placing ourselves on this pedestal of philosopher kings.

Let me explain:
1/🧵👇

A lot has been written on the causes of polarization, but Avidit Acharya, Theo Serlin and I wanted to ask a different question: How Polarization *Ends*

Paper link and 🧵

tinyurl.com/jp2pk4rt
1/10

#IEBSeminars: "From gridlock to polarization"
🗣️ @bartonelee2.bsky.social  (@ethzurich.bsky.social)
📅 Tuesday 18
⏰ 2:30pm 
Info👉 https://f.mtr.cool/cpsutleeti

"From gridlock to polarization"
🗣️ @bartonelee2.bsky.social (@@ethzurich.bsky.social)
📅 Tuesday 18
⏰ 2:30pm 
Info👉 https://s.mtrbio.com/faeucwbgcl

#IEBSeminars (5/6)

📣Now hiring: Predoc in Economics and Data Science

We are hiring a predoc -- work at ETH Zurich on exciting projects in applied econ (political econ, education, etc.), using AI, NLP, and causal inference. Apply here: econjobmarket.org/positions/11505

We’re happy to host the 1st European Economic Theory Conference in Bonn next fall! Submissions in all areas of economic theory are welcome.

Just published on APSR First View: "Vox Populi: Popular Support for the Popular Initiative" by Lucas Leemann (@LucasLeemann), Patrick Emmenegger, and André Walter. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Based on many useful comments, @grattonecon.bsky.social and I have updated the working paper over last couple of days. We now explicitly extend the model to account for the risk of democratic backsliding and explain the rationale behind our assumptions more clearly.
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/60mq5...

Is a Gridlocked Congress Causing More Polarization? - ProMarket In new research, Marc Jacob, Barton E. Lee and Gabriele Gratton argue that legislative gridlock is not only a consequence of Congress’ polarization but also a cause of it. In sum, both polarization an...

their paper (short summary below) with @marcjacob.bsky.social on the relationship between gridlock and polarisation. www.promarket.org/2024/06/26/i...

Over the past few days, I have also been reminded of this paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social and @bartonelee2.bsky.social and, of course, ...
gratton.org/papers/Drain...

Seems like a good time to read this beautiful paper!
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The real threat to American prosperity Nobel-winning economist Daron Acemoglu on trade wars, tech industry hubris — and how loss of faith in US institutions could spiral

Immensely thought-provoking essay by @dacemoglumit.bsky.social! on.ft.com/3CU6rRD

What do “populist” voters want from their representatives? Why not ask them? Kevin Arceneaux reports populist voters want representatives to:

1. Listen less to experts and do less research!
2. Listen more to ordinary people!

Environmental Policymaking with Political Learning Abstract I study environmental policymaking when policy choices signal politicians' policy preferences and policy outcomes provide information about policies' appropriateness. I show that when favourable policy outcomes lead voters to want policy persistence, reelection-seeking politicians seek to appear likely to implement the voters' preferred policy for the future, which need not be their ex-ante preferred one. Political inefficiencies arise whenever the ex-ante preferred policy is sufficiently likely to become unpopular after its implementation and policy learning is valuable enough.

I've just posted a revised version of "Environmental Policymaking with Political Learning" (osf.io/preprints/so...). Comments welcome! 🤗

Paper abstract

This is as good a time as any to post a paper I've been working on with @LindseyGailmard: The Persistence and Fragility of Bureaucratic Capacity.

We ask: what makes bureaucratic capacity persist, and what makes *threats* to bureaucratic capacity hard to reverse?

Workshop on the Political Economy of Autocratic Rule & Democratic Backsliding Workshop on the Political Economy of Autocratic Rule & Democratic Backsliding, Toulouse, TSE/IAST Building, June 23–24, 2025.

Yeees! 💫 The preliminary program for our Workshop on the Political Economy of Autocratic Rule & Democratic Backsliding (June 23-24, just before EPSA) at IAST/TSE is out. Pair your Madrid trip with a stop in Toulouse. Registration opens soon! Check out speakers here: www.iast.fr/conferences/...

Don’t miss out of this year’s SIOE 🏄🌊 deadline this week! 👇