Working Group in African Political Economy (WGAPE) Spring 2012

The Working Group in African Political Economy (WGAPE – pronounced “wah-gah-pay”) brings together faculty and advanced graduate students in Economics and Political Science who combine field research experience in Africa with training in political economy methods. Since 2002, the group has met semi-annually to discuss the work-in-progress of its core members and invited guests. It is co-led by Daniel Posner (Department of Political Science, MIT) and Edward Miguel (Department of Economics, UC Berkeley).

​WGAPE serves as a forum for presenting works-in-progress, and provides an unparalleled opportunity for useful feedback by colleagues in the field.  After nine years as an exclusively west coast entity, WGAPE expanded its reach to include scholars from across the country.  Thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), WGAPE held its first national meeting in May 2012, at the Blum Center on the University of California, Berkeley campus.

​The two-day meeting consisted of in-depth, round-table discussions of papers that were circulated and read in advance of the meeting.  Presenters provided a brief summary or the paper and orienting comments prior to the floor opening for discussion.

Program

1. Brigitte Zimmerman, Daniel P. Enemark, Clark C. Gibson, Mathew D. McCubbins, Does Power Corrupt? The Effect of Holding Local Political Office in Zambia on Generalized Trust and Altruistic Reciprocity, UCSD, Political Science
2. Jessica Hoel, Do Spouses’ Responses to Asymmetric Information Match? Laboratory Evidence from Kenya, University of Michigan, Economics
3. Omar Garcia-Ponce and Leonard Wantchekon, The Institutional Legacy of African lndependence Movements, New York University, Politics
4. Kelly Zhang, Increasing Citizen Demand for Good Government in Kenya, Stanford, Political Science
5. Tristan Reed, Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, Chiefs, Harvard University, Economics
6. Jason Kerwin, “Rational Fatalism”: Non-monotonic choices in response to risk, University of Michigan, Economics
7. Gwyneth McClendon, Co–ethnicity and democratic governance, An Experiment with South African Politicians, Princeton University, Politics
8. Jessica Gottlieb, Can information that raises voter expectations improve accountability? A field experiment in Mali, Stanford, Political Science

Dan Posner (UC Los Angeles)