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Reposted by Palaash Bhargava

Nuffield College Library @nuffieldlibrary.bsky.social · 21d

Ancestral origins of attention to environmental issues
doi.org/10.48550/arX...
@arxiv-econ-gn.bsky.social preprint by @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow César Barilla and @palaashbhargava.bsky.social

Ancestral origins of attention to environmental issues

How does the climatic experience of previous generations affect today's attention to environmental questions? Using self-reported beliefs and environmental themes in folklore, we show empirically…

doi.org

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

10/ Our findings highlight how deep-rooted cultural transmission shapes modern attention to the environment.

You can read the full paper here: palaashbhargava.github.io/Bhargava_Cli...

palaashbhargava.github.io

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

9/ The U-shape emerges because individuals learn about their environment for two reasons: optimizing resource use in stable conditions & protecting against extremes. 🌿🌪️

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

8/ We propose a theoretical framework where the value of attention to the environment depends on perceived stability, shaped through cultural transmission of ancestral experiences.

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

7/ Why this pattern? Attention is costly, but information is valuable—both for adapting to stable conditions and preparing for extreme events. 🌍⚖️

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

6/ Across all specifications, we find a U-shaped relationship! Both highly stable and highly unstable ancestral climates lead to greater attention to the environment today, while intermediate variability results in lower attention.

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

5/ We construct a measure of ancestral climate variability—capturing deviations from normal temperatures for each ancestral generation—and study its effect on self-reported attention to the environment from WVS and level of environmental themes in folklore. 🌱📜

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

4/ We match historical temperature data (1600–1920s) with ethnic group locations from Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas. Using Ethnologue, we link World Value Survey respondents to their ethnic groups via their mother tongue & incorporate folklore data. 📖

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

3/ To document this, we combine historical climate data with ethnographic, linguistic & global survey data. We examine whether ancestral climate variability affects how much attention individuals and groups pay to the environment today. 📊

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

2/ Experiences of your ancestors are passed on as stories. Your grandma tells you a story that her great grandma told her once. These stories can shape beliefs including the ones related to the level of attention our environment warrants.

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Mar 12

1/ Ever wondered if your ethnic ancestors' climatic experiences shape how you think about the environment today? 🌍🔥

In a new WP with Cesar Barilla, we find a U-shaped link between ancestral climate variability & attention to the environment today.

#Climate #Culture #EconSky

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Reposted by Palaash Bhargava

NBER @nber.org · Feb 25

How parents are affected when their child goes to college or receives a grant, from Palaash Bhargava, @econsandy.bsky.social, Jeff Denning, Robert W. Fairlie, and Oded Gurantz https://www.nber.org/papers/w33497

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Reposted by Palaash Bhargava

Jeff Denning @jeffdenning.com · Feb 24

How are parents affected by their kid going to college? How are they affected when their kid gets a scholarship or grant?

New working paper with @palaashbhargava.bsky.social @econsandy.bsky.social @odedgurantz.bsky.social and Rob Fairlie

www.nber.org/papers/w33497

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Dec 25

Thanks for the bump, @sweiwang.bsky.social !

Stephanie Wang @sweiwang.bsky.social · Dec 24

@palaashbhargava.bsky.social JMP two-tier randomized deskmate matching in India to target isolate students and finds key tradeoff: within classroom, benefits from low-low pairing but high-low pairing better for social cohesion at classroom level palaashbhargava.github.io/Updated_JM_B... #econjmp

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Dec 20

Would love to join! :)

Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Dec 19

Thank you! :)

Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Dec 18

This is such an important point that often gets ignored from a policy perspective. I think one way of making meaningful headway is to lean into sociological responses and be wary of policy recommendations based on the actual level of randomization.

Joshua Goodman @joshua-goodman.com · Dec 17

Also, peer effects are deeply annoying for policy analysis because they imply:

the partial equilibrium results in many papers (estimated impacts of a given teacher/school/policy)

don't necessarily equal

the general equilibrium impacts (once kids re-sort in response to policy changes).

Joshua Goodman @joshua-goodman.com · Dec 17

I asked my students what topic in our economics of education class was most important for education policy.

Nearly all of them chose "peer effects".

(Perhaps reflecting my own evolution from ignoring peer effects to thinking they explain a huge fraction of education phenomena.)

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Dec 18

Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for making this list! Would love to be added.

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Dec 12

Posting a little late but new blogpost from World Bank Development Impact on my job market paper.

Peer matching interventions often require a nuanced understanding of how direct vs general equilibrium effects can operate differently.

blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

#EconSky

To pair or not to pair isolated students with more popular peers? Trade-offs in deskmate plans for socio-emotional growth. Guest post by Palaash Bhargava

blogs.worldbank.org

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Reposted by Palaash Bhargava

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Dec 2

Today’s #econjmp post is by @palaashbhargava.bsky.social, who does a RCT in India to examine how peer interactions work within and across classrooms. He shows tradeoffs from pairing isolated kids with popular kids vs each other blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Palaash Bhargava (@palaashbhargava.bsky.social)

PhD student at Columbia University Development and Labour Economist focusing on Social Networks and Education. Website: https://sites.google.com/view/palaashbhargava

palaashbhargava.bsky.social

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Nov 30

Thank you for the bump up, Natalie! I am glad you liked the paper.

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Nov 30

Thanks Stephen! As Sandy mentioned, the reason behind running the experiment in two levels was to figure out how local effects can conflict with general equilibrium effects. And that is exactly what I document. Happy to chat more about it :)

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Nov 30

Thank you for sharing this paper, Sandy!

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Nov 30

I am glad you liked the paper, Umut!

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Palaash Bhargava @palaashbhargava.bsky.social · Nov 28

I guess it would be interesting to see if this finding does extend to workplace in general. I would love to carry that research h out if given a chance.

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