Areas of Expertise:
  • Applied Microeconomics
  • Culture and Economics
  • Political Economy
About
 

Biography

Paola Giuliano is a Professor of Economics at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and holds the Chauncey J. Medberry Chair in Management. She is also research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge), research affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London) and research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn).

Giuliano's main areas of research are culture and economics and political economy. She holds a B.A. from Bocconi University (Milan) and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She received the Young Economic Award from the European Economic Association in 2004. She teaches the Global Macroeconomics and Managerial Economics MBA courses at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Her research has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Businessweek, Time, The Economist, The Guardian, Financial Times, the Boston Globe, CNBC, KPCC and PBS.

Education

Ph.D. Economics, 2003, UC Berkeley

B.A. Economics, summa cum laude, 1997, Bocconi University (Milan)

Journal Articles

“Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Educational Performance of U.S. Born Students” (with David Figlio, Riccardo Marchingiglio, Umut Ozek and Paola Sapienza), forthcoming, Review of Economic Studies

“Nation Building and Education” (with Alberto Alesina and Bryony Reich), Economic Journal, 2021, 131 (638), 2273-2303, Lead Article

“Understanding Cultural Persistence and Change” (with Nathan Nunn), Review of Economic Studies, 2021, 88 (4), 1582-1623, Lead Article

“The Family Origin of the Math Gender Gap is a White Affluent Phenomenon” (with Gaia Dossi, David Figlio and Paola Sapienza), American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 2021, 111, 179-183

“Born in the Family: Preferences for Boys and the Gender Gap in Math” (with Gaia Dossi, David Figlio and Paola Sapienza), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2021, 183, 175-188

“Gender and Culture”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2020, 36 (4), 944-961

“The Cost of Being too Patient” (with Paola Sapienza), American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2020, 110, 314-318

“Long Term Orientation and Educational Performance” (with David Figlio, Umut Ozek and Paola Sapienza), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2019, 11 (4), 272-309

“The Cultural Origin of Saving Behavior” (with Joan Costa-i-Font and Berkay Ozcan), PLoS ONE, September 2018

“Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations” (with Nathan Nunn), Economic History of Developing Regions, 2018, 33 (1): 1-17

“Traditional agricultural practices and the sex ratio today” (with Alberto Alesina and Nathan Nunn), PLoS ONE, January 2018, 13 (1), e0190510

“The Right Amount of Trust” (with Jeff Butler and Luigi Guiso), Journal of the European Economic   Association, October 2016, 14(5), 1155-1180

“Trust and Cheating” (with Jeff Butler and Luigi Guiso), Economic Journal, September 2016, 126 (595), 1703-1738.

“Review of Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion edited by Peter J. Richerson and Morten H. Christiansen”, Journal of Economic Literature, June 2016, 54 (2), 522-533.

“Culture and Institutions” (with Alberto Alesina), Journal of Economic Literature, December 2015, 53 (4), 898-944, Russian Translation in Voprosy ekonomiki.

“Trust, Values and False Consensus” (with Jeff Butler and Luigi Guiso), International Economic Review, August 2015, 56 (3), 889-915.

“Family Ties and the Regulation of Labor” (with Alberto Alesina, Yann Algan and Pierre Cahuc), Journal of the European Economic Association, August 2015, 13 (4), 599-630, Editor’s Choice

“The Role of Women in Society: from Pre-Industrial to Modern Times”, CESifo Economic Studies, March 2015, 61 (1), 33-52.

“Growing Up in a Recession” (with Antonio Spilimbergo), Review of Economic Studies, 81, 787-817 [this paper has been retracted, the new evidence on the topic can be found under "Recessions, Lifetime Experiences and the Formation of Political Beliefs" (with Antonio Spilimbergo)]

“Choice and Self: How Synchronic and Diachronic Identity Shapes Choices and Decision Making” (with D. Bartel, G. Newman, S. Puntoni, L. Rips and O. Urminsky), Marketing Letters, September 2014, 25 (3), 281-291.

“Genetic Distance, Transportation Costs, and Trade” (with Antonio Spilimbergo and Giovanni Tonon), Journal of Economic Geography, January 2014, 14 (1), 179-198

“Democracy and Reforms” (with Prachi Mishra and Antonio Spilimbergo), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, October 2013, 5(4): 179-204

“Like Mother Like Son? Experimental Evidence on the Transmission of Values from Parents to Children” (with Marco Cipriani and Olivier Jeanne), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, June 2013, vol. 90, 100-111   

“On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough,” (with Alberto Alesina and Nathan Nunn), Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2013, vol. 128 (2), 469-530, Lead Article and Editors’ Choice, winner of the 2013 IPUMS Research Award

“The Transmission of Democracy: From the Village to the Nation-State” (with Nathan Nunn), American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 103, No. 3, May 2013

“Where Has All the Money Gone? Foreign Aid and the Composition of Government Spending,” (with Santanu Chatterjee and Ilker Kaya), The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, (Contributions), 2012, Volume 12, Issue 1, Article 26.

“Family Ties and Political Participation” (with Alberto Alesina), Journal of the European Economic Association, October 2011, 9 (5), 817-839 (Lead Article)

“Fertility and the Plough” (with Alberto Alesina and Nathan Nunn), American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, May 2011, vol. 101 (3): 499-503.

“The Power of the Family” (with Alberto Alesina), Journal of Economic Growth, June 2010, Vol. 15 (2), 93-125 (Lead Article).

Reprinted in E. Spolaore (ed.), Culture and Economic Growth, 2014, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgard Publishing

“Remittances, Financial Development and Growth” (with Marta Ruiz-Arranz), Journal of Development Economics, 90, 2009, 144-152.

“The Political Economy of Agricultural Market Reforms in Developing Countries” (with Diego Scalise), The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 2009, Vol. 9, Issue 1 (Contributions), Article 33.

“Culture and the Family: An Application to Educational Choices in Italy”, Rivista di Politica Economica (Invited Paper), August 2008, Issue 4.

“Living Arrangements in Western Europe: Does Cultural Origin Matter?” Journal of the European Economic Association, September 2007, 5(5): 927-952-winner of the European Economic Association Young Economist Award, 2004

“Capital Income Taxes and Growth in a Stochastic Economy: A Numerical Analysis of the Role of Risk Aversion and Intertemporal Substitution,” (with S. Chatterjee and S. Turnovsky), Journal of Public Economic Theory, Vol. 6, no. 2: pp. 277-310, May 2004 

“Intertemporal Substitution, Risk aversion and Economic Performance in a Stochastically Growing Open Economy,” (with S. Turnovsky), Journal of International Money and Finance, Vol. 22, no. 4: pp. 529-556, August 2003

Book Chapters

“What Motivates Leaders to Invest in Nation Building” (with Bryony Reich and Alessandro Riboni), forthcoming, Nation Building: Big Lessons from Successes and Failures, Rohner and Zhuravskaya (eds.), CEPR, London

“Historical Data: Where to Find Them, How to Use Them” (with Andrea Matranga), 2021, Handbook of Historical Economics, Bisin, A. and G. Federico (eds.), Elsevier, North Holland

“Gender: A Historical Perspective”, 2018, in Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy, ed. Susan L. Averett, Laura M. Argys, and Saul D. Hoffman, New York: Oxford University Press

“Origin and Evolution of Cognitive Frames: Comments on ‘Behavioral Economics and Social Exclusion: Can Interventions Overcome Prejudice? by Karla Hoff”, May 2016, in Kaushik Basu and Joseph Stiglitz editors: Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy, Volume 1: Concepts and Analysis, Palgrave MacMillan

Working Papers

“Aggregate Shocks and the Formation of Preferences and Beliefs”, with Antonio Spilimbergo (revise and resubmit, Journal of Economic Literature)

“Beliefs that Entertain”, joint with Ashvin Gandhi, Eric Guan, Quinn Keefer, Chase McDonald, Michaela Pagel and Joshua Tasoff

“Herding, Warfare, and a Culture of Honor: Global Evidence”, with Yiming Cao, Benjamin Enke, Armin Falk and Nathan Nunn, NBER WP 29250

“Who Voted for Trump? Populism and Social Capital”, with Romain Wacziarg, NBER WP 27651

“The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the United States”, with Marco Tabellini, NBER WP 27238

Main Lectures

Annual Conference SITES 2023, Naples, Italy, September 2023

CEPR, Annual Symposium in Labor Economics, Keynote Speaker, June 2023

International Festival of Economics, Turin, Italy, June 2023

First International Workshop on Migration and Family Economics (Paris), Keynote Speaker, June 2022

Business, Identity and Networks Conference, Keynote Speaker, July 2022

Contemporary Debates, Kadir Has University (Istanbul), Keynote Speaker, January 2022

Second Alberto Alesina Lecture on the Political Economy of Immigration, Immigration in OECD Countries, 11th Annual conference, Keynote Speaker, December 2021

Towards Sustainable Growth, Research Institute for Development, Growth and Economics (Uruguay), Keynote Speaker, December 2020

Econometric Society Summer Meeting (Seattle), Semi-plenary Speaker, June 2019

University of Essex, Workshop on Applied Microeconomics, Keynote Speaker, June 2019

Eight Italian Congress of Econometrics and Empirical Economics, Lecce, Keynote Speaker, January 2019

International Symposium on Labor Economics, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics, Xiamen University, Keynote Speaker, December 2018

Gender Equality, Dondena Gender Initiative, Bocconi University, Keynote Speaker, October 2018

AFD-World Bank Migration and Development Conference, Stanford University, Keynote Speaker, July 2018

"Development Day: Gender and Development”, Stockholm School of Economics, Keynote Speaker, June 2018

Public Lecture on “Culture and Economics”, Santa Clara University, May 2018

Public Lecture on “Gender: A Historical Perspective”, Trinity College, April 2018

8th Laboratory for Comparative Social Research International Workshop “Quantitative Research of Social Changes around the World”, Moscow, Keynote Speaker, April 2018

Association for the Study of Religion, Economics and Culture Conference, Bologna University, Keynote Speaker, September 2017 

XXXI National Conference of Labour Economics, University of Trento, Keynote Speaker, September 2016

“Economic Growth and Development”, NTU Singapore, Keynote Speaker, August 2016

“The Deep Causes of Economic Development”, Utrecht University, Keynote Speaker, December 2014

XII “Brucchi Luchino” Labour Economics Workshop, Bank of Italy, Keynote Speaker, December 2013

CESIFO, Venice Summer Institute on “The Determinants of Gender Gaps: Institutional Design and Historical Factors”, Keynote Speaker, July 2013

The Power of the Immigrant Mindset in America

Warren Olney learns from Paola Giuliano, economist and researcher, how different waves of immigrants to the U.S. have leaned politically and have actually influenced policy.

Featuring:  Paola Giuliano, Professor of Economics, Chauncey J. Medberry Chair in Management