Palaash Bhargava

Ancestral origins of attention to environmental issues How does the climatic experience of previous generations affect today's attention to environmental questions? Using self-reported beliefs and environmental themes in folklore, we show empirically…

Ancestral origins of attention to environmental issues
doi.org/10.48550/arX...
@arxiv-econ-gn.bsky.social preprint by @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow César Barilla and @palaashbhargava.bsky.social

10/ Our findings highlight how deep-rooted cultural transmission shapes modern attention to the environment.

You can read the full paper here: palaashbhargava.github.io/Bhargava_Cli...

9/ The U-shape emerges because individuals learn about their environment for two reasons: optimizing resource use in stable conditions & protecting against extremes. 🌿🌪️

8/ We propose a theoretical framework where the value of attention to the environment depends on perceived stability, shaped through cultural transmission of ancestral experiences.

7/ Why this pattern? Attention is costly, but information is valuable—both for adapting to stable conditions and preparing for extreme events. 🌍⚖️

6/ Across all specifications, we find a U-shaped relationship! Both highly stable and highly unstable ancestral climates lead to greater attention to the environment today, while intermediate variability results in lower attention.

5/ We construct a measure of ancestral climate variability—capturing deviations from normal temperatures for each ancestral generation—and study its effect on self-reported attention to the environment from WVS and level of environmental themes in folklore. 🌱📜

4/ We match historical temperature data (1600–1920s) with ethnic group locations from Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas. Using Ethnologue, we link World Value Survey respondents to their ethnic groups via their mother tongue & incorporate folklore data. 📖

3/ To document this, we combine historical climate data with ethnographic, linguistic & global survey data. We examine whether ancestral climate variability affects how much attention individuals and groups pay to the environment today. 📊

2/ Experiences of your ancestors are passed on as stories. Your grandma tells you a story that her great grandma told her once. These stories can shape beliefs including the ones related to the level of attention our environment warrants.

1/ Ever wondered if your ethnic ancestors' climatic experiences shape how you think about the environment today? 🌍🔥

In a new WP with Cesar Barilla, we find a U-shaped link between ancestral climate variability & attention to the environment today.

#Climate #Culture #EconSky

How parents are affected when their child goes to college or receives a grant, from Palaash Bhargava, @econsandy.bsky.social, Jeff Denning, Robert W. Fairlie, and Oded Gurantz https://www.nber.org/papers/w33497

How are parents affected by their kid going to college? How are they affected when their kid gets a scholarship or grant?

New working paper with @palaashbhargava.bsky.social @econsandy.bsky.social @odedgurantz.bsky.social and Rob Fairlie

www.nber.org/papers/w33497

Thanks for the bump, @sweiwang.bsky.social !

Would love to join! :)

Thank you! :)

This is such an important point that often gets ignored from a policy perspective. I think one way of making meaningful headway is to lean into sociological responses and be wary of policy recommendations based on the actual level of randomization.

Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for making this list! Would love to be added.

To pair or not to pair isolated students with more popular peers? Trade-offs in deskmate plans for socio-emotional growth. Guest post by Palaash Bhargava

Posting a little late but new blogpost from World Bank Development Impact on my job market paper.

Peer matching interventions often require a nuanced understanding of how direct vs general equilibrium effects can operate differently.

blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

#EconSky

Today’s #econjmp post is by @palaashbhargava.bsky.social, who does a RCT in India to examine how peer interactions work within and across classrooms. He shows tradeoffs from pairing isolated kids with popular kids vs each other blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Thank you for the bump up, Natalie! I am glad you liked the paper.

Thanks Stephen! As Sandy mentioned, the reason behind running the experiment in two levels was to figure out how local effects can conflict with general equilibrium effects. And that is exactly what I document. Happy to chat more about it :)

Thank you for sharing this paper, Sandy!

I am glad you liked the paper, Umut!

I guess it would be interesting to see if this finding does extend to workplace in general. I would love to carry that research h out if given a chance.

Totally! One of the examples that I give while presenting this paper is how norms about interacting with graduate students in academic departments are based on how many professors make the effort. Only one is not enough.

Thank you so much! You are exactly right. Teachers rotate between classrooms and students stay in the same classroom. Also in several schools, when they move up to higher grades, they still stay with the same set of peers from previous years.

Funnily enough, when we approached the schools, half of the principals referred to Mean girls in their conversations with us :p
Thank you so much for going through the paper!

14/ You can read the full paper here: palaashbhargava.github.io/Updated_JM_B...

📚 Check out my other work on:
- Family networks & household finance 🏡
- Ancestral networks, climate preferences & economic history 🕰️
- Social networks & behavioral traits 👥
More here: sites.google.com/view/palaash...

13/ Ultimately, optimal strategies depend on what schools prioritize:

- Are individual or classroom-wide outcomes more important?

- Which students’ outcomes and what type of outcomes matter most?