PGPELG Speaker Series
The Peter Gourevitch Political Economy Lunch Group (PGPELG) formal speaker series, co-sponsored by the Center for Commerce and Diplomacy, is for faculty and students who are eager to engage with the world's leading scholars. The series showcases UC San Diego as a hub of political economy research and serves as a forum for discussing new research from across the globe.
PGPELG is organized by Carlos Avenancio-León , Samuel Bazzi, Ruixue Jia, Sara Lowes, Agustina Paglayan and Mateo Vásquez-Cortés.
DAY/TIME: Tuesdays from 12:30-1:45 p.m.
LOCATION: The meeting is in person only and will be held in 3106 (please check the schedule).
Events
Winter 2026 PGPELG Speakers
| Feb. 3 | Jane Esberg, University of Pennsylvania |
| Feb. 10 | Mateo Vásquez-Cortés, UC San Diego |
| Feb. 17 | Pierre Mouganie, Simon Fraser University |
| Feb. 24 | Claudio Ferraz, University of British Columbia |
| March 3 | Kurtis Gilliat and Riccardo Di Cato, UC San Diego |
Spring 2026 PGPELG Speakers
| April 14 | Romain Wacziarg, UCLA |
| April 21 | Guy Grossman, University of Pennsylvania |
| May 5 | Martin Williams, University of Michigan |
| May 26 | Jon Denton Schneider, Clark University |
Past Events
Winter 2025
| Jan. 7, 2025 | Rosanne Logeart, Copenhagen Business School, *Location: GPS Dean’s Conference Room |
| Feb. 4, 2025 |
Margeret Levi, Stanford |
| Feb. 25, 2025 |
Philipp Barteska, Harvard and HKU, *Location: GPS Dean’s Conference Room |
Spring 2024
| April 9, 2024 | Patrick Francois, University of British Columbia |
| April 16, 2024 | Shaoda Wang, University of Chicago |
| April 23, 2024 | Salma Mousa, UCLA |
| April 30, 2024 | Jared Rubin, Chapman University |
| May 7, 2024 | Ben Marx, Boston University, *Location: GPS Dean’s Conference Room |
| May 14, 2024 | Ellora Derenoncourt, Boston University |
| May 21, 2024 | David Fortunato, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy |
| May 28, 2024 | Graduate Student Presentations |
Winter 2024
| Jan. 23, 2024 | Carlos Avenancio-León, UC San Diego. Location: SSB 102 |
| Jan. 30, 2024 | Emily Sellars, Yale University. Location: PEB 721 |
| Feb. 6, 2024 | John Ahlquist, UC San Diego. Location: SSB 102 |
| Feb. 13, 2024 | Guadalupe Tunon, Princeton University. Location: PEB 721 |
| Feb. 20, 2024 | Vincent Pons, Harvard University. Location: PEB 721 |
| Feb. 27, 2024 | Graduate Student Presentations. Location: SSB 102 |
| March 5, 2024 | Agustina Paglayan, UC San Diego. Location: PEB 721 |
| March 12, 2024 | Volha Charnysh, MIT. Location: SSB 102 |
Fall 2023
| Oct. 10, 2023 | Peter Buisseret, Harvard University |
| Oct. 17, 2023 | Graduate Student Presentations |
| Oct. 24, 2023 | Danny Klinenberg, UC San Diego |
| Oct. 31, 2023 | Peter Bils, Vanderbilt University |
| Nov. 7, 2023 | Darin Christensen, UCLA |
| Nov. 14, 2023 | Tesalia Rizzo, UC Merced |
| Nov. 21, 2023 | Antonella Bandiera, ITAM |
| Nov. 28, 2023 | Federica Izzo, UC San Diego |
Spring 2023
| April 11, 2023 | Dana Foarta, Stanford Stanford Graduate School of Business |
| April 25, 2023 | Amanda Friedenberg, University of Michigan |
| May 9, 2023 | Umberto Mignozzetti, UC San Diego |
| May 16, 2023 | Nico Voigtlander, UCLA |
| May 30, 2023 | Jaya Wen, Harvard Business School |
Winter 2023
| Jan. 17, 2023 | Sung Mi Kim, UC San Diego |
| Jan. 24, 2023 | Michael Gibilisco, California Institute of Technology |
| Jan. 31, 2023 | Avidit Acharya, Stanford University |
| Feb. 7, 2023 | Noam Lupu, Vanderbilt University |
| Feb. 21, 2023 | Pablo Beramendi, Duke University |
| Feb. 28, 2023 | Amy Pond, Technical University of Munich |
| March 7, 2023 | Alison Post, University of California, Berkeley |
Fall 2022
| Oct. 4, 2022 | James Robinson, University of Chicago |
| Oct. 11, 2022 | Hakeem Jefferson, Stanford University |
| Oct. 18, 2022 | Clemence Tricaud, UCLA |
| Oct. 25, 2022 | Wioletta Dziuda, University of Chicago |
| Nov. 1, 2022 | Ian Turner, Yale University |
| Nov. 8, 2022 | Martin Fiszbein, Boston University |
| Nov. 15, 2022 | Nathan Canen, University of Houston |
| Nov. 29, 2022 | Mariana Carvalho UC San Diego and Brown University (remote event) |
Spring 2022
| April 12, 2022 | Diana Moreira, UC Davis |
| April 19, 2022 | Sally Nuamah, Northwestern University |
| April 27, 2022 | Sultan Mehmood, joint Theory workshop and PELG, online |
| May 3, 2022 | Shelley Liu, UC Berkeley |
| May 10, 2022 | Ana-Tur Prats, UC Merced |
| May 24, 2022 | Felipe Gonzalez, PUC-Chile, online |
Winter 2022
| Jan. 11, 2022 | Sarah Anzia, UC Berkeley |
| Jan. 31, 2022 | Minju Kim, Postdoctoral Fellow, UC San Diego |
| Feb. 8, 2022 | Germán Gieczewski, Princeton University |
| Feb. 15, 2022 | Andreas B. Wiedemann, Princeton University |
| Feb. 22, 2022 | Mark Dincecco, University of Michigan |
Fall 2021
PELG Speakers
| Oct. 19, 2021 | Cesi Cruz, UCLA |
| Oct. 26, 2021 | Allan Drazen, University of Maryland |
| Nov. 9, 2021 | Matilde Bombardini, University of California Berkeley |
| Nov. 16, 2021 | Matt Lowe, University of British Columbia |
| Nov. 30, 2021 | Kate Casey, Stanford University |
Spring 2021
PELG Speakers
| April 6, 2021 | Renee Bowen - Internal Speaker "The World Trade Organization and U.S. Domestic Politics" (with Lawrence Broz and Marc Muendler) |
| April 13, 2021 | Jake Grumbach, University of Washington "Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding" |
| April 20, 2021 | John Ahlquist, UC San Diego |
| April 27, 2021 | Vicky Fouka, Stanford |
| May 4, 2021 | Nick Carnes, Duke |
| May 11, 2021 | Omar Wasow, Princeton |
| May 18, 2021 | Guadalupe Tunon, Princeton "Special Interest Trade-offs: How Restricting Money in Politics Helps Church-backed Candidates" |
| May 25, 2021 | Paola Giuliano, UCLA "The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the United States" (with Marco Tabellini) |
| June 1, 2021 | Juan Carlos Suarez Serrato, Duke |
Winter 2021
PELG Speakers
| Jan. 12, 2021 | Michael Ting, Columbia University "An Organizational Theory of State Capacity" (with Erik Snowberg) |
| Jan. 26, 2021 | Asya Magazinnik, MIT "District Elections Decrease Local Cooperation in Immigration Enforcement" (with Michael Hankinson) |
| Feb. 2, 2021 | Yoo Sun Jung, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for Commerce and Diplomacy "Legalization of International Institutions and Its Discontents: GATT vs. WTO Adjudication, 1989-2015" |
| Feb. 9, 2021 | Enriqueta Aragones, IAE-CSIC "Ideological Consistency and Valence Advantage" (with Dimitrios Xefteris) |
| Feb. 16, 2021 | Scott Ashworth, Harris School of Public Policy - University of Chicago "Sources of Women’s Underrepresentation in US Politics: A Model of Election Aversion and Voter Discrimination" (with Ethan Bueno de Masquita and Christopher Berry) |
| Feb. 23, 2021 | Andy Eggers, University of Chicago "Placebo Tests for Causal Inference" (with Allan Dafoe and Guadalupe Tunon) |
| March 9, 2021 | Marko Klasnja, Georgetown University "Wealth and Gender in Congressional Politics" (with Rachel Benrhard and Andy Eggers) |
Fall 2020
PELG Speakers
| Oct. 6, 2020 | Jhacova Williams, RAND Corporation "Confederate Streets and Black-White Labor Market Differentials" |
| Oct. 13, 2020 | Carlo Schwarz, Bocconi University "Social Media and Vote Outcomes: Evidence from the United States" (with Thomas Fujiwara and Karsten Müller) |
| Oct. 20, 2020 | Olle Folke, Uppsala University |
| Oct. 27, 2020 | Diana Van Patten, Princeton University "Multinationals, Monopsony and Local Development: Evidence from the United Fruit Company" |
| Nov. 10, 2020 | Ro'ee Levy, MIT "Social Media, News Consumption, and Polarization: Evidence from a Field Experiment" |
| Nov. 17, 2020 | Raquel Fernandez, New York University "Universal Basic Income: A Dynamic Assessment" |
| Dec. 1, 2020 | Svetlana Kosterina, University of Pittsburgh (Joint with Economics) "Delegated Bargaining" |
Winter 2020
PELG Speakers
| Jan. 14, 2020 | Isabela Mares, Yale University, "Poor versus Poor: How Distributional Conflicts Conditions the Choice of Clientelistic Strategies" (with Lauren Young) |
| Feb. 11, 2020 | Susan Stokes, University of Chicago, Joint with Political Science CP series "Referendums. Why Are They Held? When Are They Justified? |
| Feb. 18, 2020 | Shanker Satyanath, NYU, "Cronyism in State Violence: Evidence from Labor Repression During Argentina’s Last Dictatorship" (with Esteban Klor and Sebastian Saiegh) |
| March 3, 2020 | Horacio Larreguy, Harvard Universtiy, Joint with Political Science CP series "Brokering Votes with Information Spread Via Social Networks" (with Raúl Duarte, Frederico Finan, and Laura Schechter) |
Fall 2019
PELG Speakers
| Oct. 8, 2019 | Luis Martinez, University of Chicago, "How Effective Are Monetary Incentives to Vote? Evidence from a Nationwide Policy" |
| Oct. 15, 2019 | Anqi Li, Washington Universtiy, "The Politics of News Personalization" (with Lin Hu and Ilya Segal) |
| Oct. 22, 2019 | Romain Wacziarg, UCLA, "The Cultural Divide" (with Klaus Desmet) |
| Oct. 29, 2019 | Thomas Fujiwara, Princeton, "Local Politicians and the Deforestation of the Amazon" (with Leonardo Bursztyn)" |
| Nov. 13, 2019 | Konstantin Sonin, University of Chicago, Joint with Economics |
| Nov. 19, 2019 | Francesco Trebbi, UBC, "Unbounding Polarization" (with Nathan Canen and Chad Kendall) |
| Dec. 3, 2019 | Cecilia Testa, University of Nottingham, "Race, Representation and Local Governments in the US South: the Effect of the Voting Rights Act" (with Andrea Bernini and Giovanni Facchini) |
Spring 2019
PELG Speakers
| May 7, 2019 | Sarah Brierley, Washington University in St. Louis, "The Connections of Party Brokers" |
| May 14, 2019 | Thomas Pepinsky, Cornell University, "Ethnicity as an Institution" |
Winter 2019
PELG Speakers
| Jan. 15, 2019 | Sean Gailmard , UC Berkeley, "Laws of War: The Growth of Legislative Power in America" |
| Jan. 22, 2019 | Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University, "The Political Economy of the Globalization Backlash: Sources and Implications" |
| Jan. 29, 2019 | Reading Group Event |
| Feb. 5, 2019 | Reading Group Event |
| Feb. 12, 2019 | David Stasavage, New York University, "Origins of Early Democracy" (with Ali Ahmed.) |
| Feb. 19, 2019 | Alisha Holland, Princeton University, "Private Property Against Public Works: How Rights Affect Development in Ecuador and Colombia" |
| Feb. 26, 2019 | Reading Group Event |
| March 5, 2019 | Reading Group Event |
| March 12, 2019 | Reading Group Event |
| March 19, 2019 | Reading Group Event |
Fall 2018
PELG Speakers
| Sept. 19, 2018 | Bard Harstad , University of Oslo, "Pledge-and-Review Bargaining" |
| Sept. 25, 2018 | Vincent Pons, Harvard Business School, "Rankings Matter Even When They Shouldn't: Bandwagon Effect in Two-Round Elections" (with Clemence Tricaud.) |
| Oct. 2, 2018 | Reading Group Event |
| Oct. 9, 2018 | Cesi Cruz, University of British Columbia, "Making Policies Matter: Voter Responses to Campaign Promises" (with Philip Keefer, Julien Labonne, and Francesco Trebbi.) |
| Oct. 16, 2018 | Sam Bazzi, Boston University, "Frontier Culture: The Roots and Persistence of 'Rugged Individualism' in the United States" (with Martin Fiszbein and Mesay Gebresilasse.) |
| Oct. 23, 2018 | Mark Dincecco, University of Michigan, "Internal Conflict, Elite Action, and State Failure: Evidence from China, 1000-1911" (with Yuhua Wang.) |
| Oct. 30, 2018 | Dana Foarta, Stanford University, "Wait-and-See or Step in? Dynamics of Interventions" (with Takuo Sugaya.) |
| Nov. 6, 2018 | Priya Mukerhjee, College of William and Mary (visiting BU), "The Electoral Effects of a Fiscal Transfer: Evidence from Indian Elections" (with Thomas Fujiwara and Martin Kanz) |
| Nov. 13, 2018 | No PELG event |
| Nov. 20, 2018 | Reading Group Event |
| Nov. 27, 2018 | Gilles Serra, CIDE, "The Electoral Strategies of a Populist Candidate: Does Charisma Discourage Experience and Encourage Extremism?" |
| Dec. 4, 2018 | Reading Group Event |