Host Steven Davis and guest Elias Papaioannou discuss the resurgence of populism in Europe and the United States over the past fifteen years. They define populism, identify its economic drivers, and consider how democratic institutions moderate and respond to populist pressures. They also consider the implications for economic performance. They wrap up their conversation with some remarks on the outlook for populism and its impact on policies and democratic institutions in the years ahead.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Elias Papaioannou is a professor of economics at the London Business School and academic director of the LBS Wheeler Institute for Business and Development. He is also the joint managing editor at the Review of Economic Studies, a top scholarly journal in economics. His research tackles big issues in political economy and economic development – including the rise of populism, the role of colonialism in Africa, ethnic differences in economic outcomes, and the relationship between democratization and growth.
Steven J. Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, advisor to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, past editor of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, and an elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. He cofounded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the US Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Previously, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.
RELATED RESOURCES:
· Elias’s website
· “The Political Economy of Populism” by Sergei Guriev and Elias Papaioannou, Journal of Economic Literature, 2022.
· “The Enduring Populist Threat” by Sergei Guriev and Elias Papaioannou, Project Syndicate Long Read, March 19, 2021.
· “The European Trust Crisis and the Rise of Populism” by Algan Yann, Sergei Guriev, Elias Papaioannou and Evgenia Passari, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2016.
· “Populist Leaders and the Economy” by Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick, and Christoph Trebesch, American Economic Review, 2023. (ungated version)
“Macroeconomic Populism” by Rudiger Dornbusch and Sebastian Edwards, Journal of Development Economics, 1990.
