This video series is one of the Barcelona School of Economics research initiatives supported by the Severo Ochoa Research Excellence Program (CEX2019-000915-S) through Spain's State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación - AEI).
Prof. Rosemarie Nagel (ICREA-UPF and BSE) uses economic experiments to test a variety of techniques designed to enable players to make better choices and improve their results in the Beauty Contest game.
Research by Profs. Alessandra Bonfiglioli (IAE-CSIC and BSE) and Gino Gancia (CREI, UPF and BSE) provides new evidence that fiscal stabilizations are more likely when economic volatility is high.
What are the causes of civil conflict? On the basis of recent theoretical and empirical research, professors Joan Esteban and Laura Mayoral (IAE and BSE) and Debraj Ray (NYU) show that preexisting ethnic divisions do influence social conflict. Their analysis provides evidence that ethnic conflicts are likely to be instrumental, i.e, driven by political or economic reasons, rather than by ancestral hatreds across groups. Funding for this project was provided by AXA Research Fund and Recercaixa.
Latest research by Professor Antonio Ciccone reveals a link between downturns of international commodities prices and the outbreak of civil war in Sub-Saharan African countries. Additional analysis suggests that a country's form of government may be a crucial factor in predicting civil war in the case of economic depression.
Professor Robin Hogarth uses a novel new methodology to demonstrate that even relatively simple measures of mood state can have a significant effect on perception of risk.
How can individual policymakers achieve social justice at both the macro and micro level when addressing concrete, everyday distributive problems? Professor Caterina Calsamiglia discusses the social justice problem and its implications for effective policy design, particularly in the area of affirmative action.
Prof. Xavier Freixas (UPF and BSE) plays on the famous words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to explain the impact of bank bailouts on taxpayers during the recent global financial crisis.
Does earning a higher salary really make a person happier? Not permanently, according to Professor Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell. Her research in happiness economics has shed new light on what determines a person's happiness, particularly the effects of income changes and other life events on subjective satisfaction.
Professor Albert Marcet discusses his pioneering research showing that simple models of learning can explain what appear to be puzzles from the viewpoint of the (fully) rational expectations literature.
