National Building eBook
Webinar

Launch of the CEPR Preventing Conflict: Policies for Peace RPN eBook on "Nation Building: Big lessons from Successes and Failures"

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Ekaterina Zhuravskaya_Slides

PDF document / 4.16 MB

Dominic Rohner_Slides

PDF document / 147.93 KB

Noam Yuchtman_Slides

PDF document / 22.03 MB

Vasiliki Fouka_Slides

PDF document / 1.53 MB

Hans-Joachim Voth_Slides

PDF document / 4.38 MB

The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Research Policy Network (RPN) Preventing Conflict: Policies for Peace, organised the launch of the eBook Nation Building: Big lessons from Successes and Failures on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, 5 - 6 PM (CET). 

This book presents a synthesis of key recent advances in political-economy research on the various approaches and strategies used in the process of building nations throughout modern history. It features chapters written by leading scholars who describe the findings of their quantitative analyses of the risks and benefits of different nation-building policies. The book is comprised of 26 chapters organised into six sections, each focusing on a different aspect of nation building. The first chapter presents a unified framework for assessing nation-building policies, highlights potential challenges that may arise, provides a summary of each of the other chapters, and draws out the main lessons from them. The following chapters delve into the importance of social interactions for national identification, the role of education, propaganda and leadership, external interventions and wars, and the effects of representation and redistribution. The book offers a nuanced understanding of effective nation-building policies.

The eBook editors Dominic Rohner (HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne, CEPR & RPN Leader) and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (PSE, EHESS, CEPR & RPN Member) introduced the eBook, followed by presentations by chapter authors: 

  • Vasiliki Fouka (Stanford University & CEPR): Language policies in education and the possibility of an identity backlash 
  • Hans-Joachim Voth (University of Zurich, CEPR & RPN Member): New patriots: How Roosevelt’s New Deal made America great again (with Bruno Caprettini) 
  • Noam Yuchtman (LSE & CEPR): Curriculum and ideology: Evidence from China (with Davide Cantoni and David Y.Yang)