Political Economy Program Director Transition

From: James Poterba <poterba_at_nber.org>
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 15:13:49 -0400

Dear Political Economy Program Members -

I am very grateful to the many program members who have spoken with me
since Alberto Alesina's untimely passing last May.  I have learned a
great deal from these conversations about how exciting the field of
political economy is today, about what has contributed to the Political
Economy program's success in the last fifteen years, and about the
frontier topics that are currently attracting research interest.  This
is truly an exciting  moment to be working in the political economy field!

I am delighted to announce that Francesco Trebbi and Ebonya Washington
have agreed to serve as the new co-directors of the Political Economy
Program.  Both are wide-ranging scholars with core interests in
political economy.  Francesco's research has focused on the determinants
of polarization, on lobbying and its effects,  on the design of
political institutions, and on the political economy of financial
regulation.  An NBER affiliate since 2007, he is a Professor of Business
and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business at the University of
California - Berkeley.  Ebonya's research has examined the links between
economic circumstances and political preferences, how candidate
attributes affect voter turnout, the determinants of legislators' voting
behavior, and the impact of the US Voting Rights Act of 1965.  She is
the Samuel C. Park Jr. Professor of Economics at Yale.  An NBER
affiliate since 2004, Ebonya is also the co-chair of the AEA's Committee
on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession. I look
forward to working with both of them to build on the Political Economy
Program's past successes and to launch new initiatives.

I hope that you will be able to join me tomorrow morning, Friday October
30, at the virtual Political Economy Program meeting, to thank Gerard
Padro i Miguel and Jesse Shapiro for their leadership of the program
during the last few months, and to welcome Ebonya and Francesco to their
new roles.  We will take a few minutes from the break after the first
paper -- at 10:50am EDT --  for this purpose.  I look forward to seeing
you then - all best wishes.

Jim Poterba
Received on Thu Oct 29 2020 - 15:17:27 EDT