London School of Economics and Political Science

AI can persuade people to take political actions

There is substantial concern about the ability of advanced AI to influence people’s behavior. A rapidly growing body of research has found that AI can produce large persuasive effects on people’s attitudes, but whether AI can persuade people to take consequential real-world actio...

Governing parties’ regulatory responses to informal miners

How do governing parties regulate informal miners and what explains regulatory response variations? Drawing on Ghana and leveraging original and secondary data, this paper shows that National Democratic Congress (NDC) incumbents tolerated most local miners even when President Mah...

Trajectories and Prospects of Grand Theory in the Social Sciences

This essay introduces the special issue on “Trajectories and Prospects of Grand Theory in the Social Sciences.” It situates the question of “grand theory” in broader debates about the state of theory and highlights a number of distinctions that can aid sociological and historical...

Returns to Caring? Health and Well‐Being Effects of Subsidized Long‐Term Care

ABSTRACT We estimate the health and well‐being effects of subsidized access to long‐term care (LTC). Our analysis exploits the staggered implementation of Spain's 2007 System of Autonomy and Care for Dependent People (SAAD), which expanded publicly funded and universal LTC subsid...

Introducing a New Dimension of Individual Differences in Existential Psychology: Development and Initial Validation of the Existential Reflection Scale

Measuring individual differences in existential psychology has traditionally been centred around two key themes: (a) the ways in which individuals seek or attain meaning and purpose in life and (b) the extent of their anxiety related to existence and mortality. We introduce a new...

The Depositary of Last Resort

Abstract What are the consequences of making central bank deposits accessible to actors beyond the banking sector? We collect novel micro data on deposit accounts historically held with the Bank of England by individuals and firms other than banks to study their role in the finan...

Alternative development in a post-aid world

In 2020, Liberian scholar-activist and author Robtel Neajai Pailey re-invigorated a debate about the colonial underpinnings of mainstream development and their racist logics with an influential journal article entitled ‘De-centering the “White Gaze” of Development’. She has since...

Is it ok to make mistakes at work? Perceptions of differential treatment of mistakes by men and women in the workplace

The authors examine whether women and men working in financial services have different perceptions of a hypothetical mistake at work. Using a survey of 1,485 U.K. financial-sector professionals, we analyze three self-reported measures: comfort in admitting a mistake, expected pen...

The Ethics of Relying on Research Participants’ Altruism

Abstract We examine the ethics of enrolling individuals in research that poses net health risks by appealing to their altruism. We argue that it is permissible to enroll individuals who are motivated by altruism when (i) they autonomously consent; and (ii) the net health risks ar...

Housework, hygiene and health. Public expectations versus private limitations in working-class households in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth–century Britain

Economic historians often attribute better health and hygiene in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries to improved domestic conditions, enabled by sanitary reform and the education of working-class women in household management. Instruction might have engendered a new...

Enlightenment, Myth and the Total Constitution

The revolutionary promise of European Enlightenment – The shadow side of enlightened thought – The modern idea of a constitution – The decline of classical constitutionalism – The rise of the total constitution – Controversy over the total constitution – The perspective of cosmop...

The effects of participating in government-led citizens’ assemblies

Abstract Contemporary democracies face growing public disaffection and mistrust. Governments have tried to revert these trends by promoting participatory governance. Prior studies established how deliberation can empower citizens. However, whether these effects hold in real-life...

ARMA-Design: Optimal Treatment Allocation Strategies for A/B Testing in Partially Observable Experiments

Online experiments are frequently employed in technological companies to evaluate the performance of a newly developed policy, product, or treatment relative to a baseline control. In many applications, the experimental units receive a sequence of treatments over time. To handle...

Public opposition to protest online: A qualitative content analysis of YouTube comments on UK climate activism videos

Abstract Public discourse plays a crucial role in shaping the success of social movements. While research has explored public support for collective action, less attention has been paid to active opposition and delegitimization strategies. This study investigates the discursive c...

Artificial Intelligence, Regulatory Capacity, and the Adaptive State

ABSTRACT Artificial intelligence is changing not only what regulators govern but the informational environment through which regulation is conducted. Regulators increasingly use advanced analytics to process evidence and target supervisory attention, while regulated organizations...

The key to scientific understanding: DEKI and stability

This paper combines discussions of scientific representation and scientific understanding. While both topics have generated substantial philosophical debate, the systematic relationships between philosophical accounts of each have been underexplored. We take a step in connecting...

Valuing five centuries of unpaid breastfeeding in England

Breastfeeding is vital and valuable labor, contributing to the physical and cognitive health of children throughout their lives, yet it is rarely compensated in formal labor markets. Its economic importance may therefore go unrecognized. We impute upper and lower bounds for the v...

Wealth-related inequality across the maternal and child continuum of care in low- and middle-income countries: a cross-country panel analysis using the slope index of inequality

Reducing wealth-related inequalities in maternal and child health remains central to universal health coverage (UHC). Prior cross-country analyses have mainly described inequality at single stages of care or relied on simple rich-poor comparisons. Less is known about how country-...

Civic ecosystem responses to compound crises: evidence from Syria

Abstract Compound crises have attracted growing interest from scholars and policymakers in recent years. Little attention, however, has been directed to the social relations that emerge from and respond to such phenomena. This paper closes the gap by investigating the emergence,...

Debt relief as climate policy: the role of personal insolvency law

Abstract Climate impacts extend beyond physical destruction to include widespread financial distress. This article explores the role that debt relief policies – particularly personal insolvency or bankruptcy law – might play within a range of measures to raise the capacity of ind...