Practical information
This seminar is an in-person event.
About the presentation
The presentation examines the relationship between infectious disease, social preferences and political institutions. It provides insights into the well documented relationship between autocratic regimes, social preferences, and a country's history with infectious disease. The research finds a positive relationship between protests and individualistic preferences in countries that experienced a deterioration of democratic institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results suggest that individualism is an important trait for preventing the deterioration of democratic rights during pandemics. Results also show more violent repression of protesters and violence against citizens by governments in countries with individualistic preferences that experienced a deterioration of democratic rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find similar results using individual level data from Benin. Here we find that those with collectivist preferences do not prefer autocratic institutions but are less willing to protest the deterioration of democratic rights.
About the speaker
Dr Ian Heffernan is an Assistant Professor of economics and the Director of Research at the African School of Economics in Benin. Ian received his PhD in economics from the University of Calgary in 2016 where he studied and conducted research in political economy, conflict, and development economics. He has a diverse methodological background having conducted research using applied econometrics, microeconomic theory and laboratory experiments.
Dr Heffernan has been a visiting scholar at the Centre during September 2022, in the framework of the mobilities under the Norhed II project "Partnership for Peace: Better Higher Education for Resilient Societies", funded by NORAD.
Ian's research focuses on the economics of conflict and conflict resolution. He is currently working on two research projects. The first is on the deterioration of civil rights during the COVID-19 pandemic and the civilian response. In particular, he tests the types of social preference that result in societies resisting a deterioration in civil rights. The second project provides a new method for estimating the economic cost of political violence. In particular, he develops a measure of the cost of repression that incorporates the fear and anxiety in the population that results from political violence. He tests this approach using data from Kenya during the 2007 election violence.