The EBPM Seminar Series at the Department of Public Policy brings external academics and practitioners to discuss their ongoing research. This event series prioritizes understanding how data, observations, and ultimately evidence is approached by each researcher. This time, in collaboration with the Department of Economics and Business, we invite political economist Salvatore Nunnari.
Abstract
Theories of voting behavior are based on the assumption that citizens accurately assess the comparative advantages of the available policy options. However, many policies produce outcomes through indirect or equilibrium effects, such as lifting price controls, expanding or constructing roads, implementing Pigouvian taxes, and monetizing fiscal deficits. The average citizen might not fully appreciate these equilibrium effects, leading to misjudgments about the efficacy of certain policies. Recent research by Dal Bo, Dal Bo, and Eyster (2018) demonstrates that individuals often vote against policies that, despite imposing direct costs, would resolve social dilemmas and enhance overall welfare. This raises an important research question: How do cognitive abilities influence the formation of preferences over policies? Specifically, what is the underlying mechanism? Our study proposes a simple theoretical framework and an experimental approach to explore a potential pathway and shows that greater cognitive skills and more optimistic beliefs about the cognitive skills of other citizens lead to greater demand for good policies. This is a joint paper with Eugenio Proto and Aldo Rustichini.
About the Speaker
Salvatore Nunnari is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Bocconi University. His research is in political economy, experimental economics, behavioral economics and microeconomic theory. Before joining Bocconi, he received a PhD in Social Sciences from the California Institute of Technology and served as an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego and Columbia University. He was recently awarded an ERC Starting Grant for a five-year project on the "Behavioral Foundations of Populism and Polarization". He is the co-director of BELSS, the Bocconi Experimental Laboratory for the Social Sciences and the director of BESS the Bachelor of Science in Economic and Social Sciences.