Young Development Economists Webinar Series (YoDEV) – Avner Seror (Aix Marseille School of Economics), July 1st at 2:30 p.m. (CET)

Rossella Calvi (Rice University)  on “Til Dowry Do Us Part: Bargaining and Violence in Indian Families” (with Ajinkya Keskar), jointly organised by the Department of Economics and Management of Università di Pavia, Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca e Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano. The webinar will be held on Thursday, 3rd June 2021 at 2:30 p.m. (CET) via Zoom. Click here in order to connect. For further information on the Young Development Economists Webinars, you can visit our website.

Abstract: 

Recent theories of the Long Divergence between Middle Eastern and Western European economies focus on Middle Eastern (over-)reliance on religious legitimacy, use of slave soldiers, and persistence of restrictive proscriptions of religious (Islamic) law. These theories take as exogenous the cultural values that complement the prevailing institutions. As a result, they miss the role of cultural values in either supporting the persistence of or inducing change in the economic and institutional environment. In this paper, we address these issues by modeling the joint evolution of institutions and culture. In doing so, we place the various hypotheses of economic divergence into one, unifying framework. We highlight the role that cultural transmission plays in reinforcing institutional evolution toward either theocratic or secular states. We extend the model to shed light on political decentralization and technological change in the two regions.