Political economy.

• Position: Program and Working Group Meetings - Brief article

The NBER Political Economy Program, directed by Alberto Alesina of Harvard University, met in Cambridge on October 17, 2014. These papers were discussed:

* Ethan Ilzetzki, London School of Economics, "A Positive Theory of Tax Reform"

* Alberto Alesina and Francesco Passarelli, Bocconi University, "Loss Aversion in Politics"

* Jimmy Charite, Columbia University, and Raymond Fisman and Ilyana Kuziemko, Columbia University and NBER, "Reference Points and Demand for Redistribution: Experimental Evidence"

* Stelios Michalopoulos and David Weil, Brown University and NBER, and Louis Putterman, Brown University, "The Influence of Ancestral Lifeways on Individual Economic Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa"

* Leonardo Bursztyn...