ASREC Europe 2025 Conference

The Department of Economics will host the annual conference for the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC) on 18-19 September 2025. 

Keynote speaker

Ara Norenzayan is a renowned psychologist and Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia, best known for his pioneering research on the intersection of religion, culture, and human cooperation. His influential work explores how religious beliefs and practices shape prosocial behavior, the cultural evolution of religions, and the role of "Big Gods" in fostering large-scale cooperation. His multiple papers in Science and Nature as well as his acclaimed book Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict have shaped scholarly discourse across disciplines, including economics, sociology, and anthropology.

Local organizers: Jeanet Sinding Bentzen and Anne Sofie Beck Knudsen, the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen.

 

Proposal submission

The Program Chair will consider papers on religion and culture from across the Social Sciences, including Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, and Anthropology.

Call for papers is closed. 

 

 

Thursday 18 September

8:30 – 9:00

Check in, coffee, croissants

9:00 – 10:40

Welcome and Session 1: Politics and Governance: Evidence from Germany
  • Andreas Link (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
  • Christine Binzel (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

“Historical Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy”
  • Constantine Manda (University of California, Irvine)

“Gods, Kings, and Missionaries: Legacies of Ancient States and Christian Missionaries on Religion in Africa”
  • Thomas Baudin (IESEG)
  • Simone Moriconi (IESEG)
  • Yajna Govind (Copenhagen Business School)

“Migration policy backlash, identity and integration of second-generation migrants in France”

10:40 – 11:10

Break

11:10 – 12:40

Session 2: Religious consequences
  • Sam Bird (Bates College)
  • David Murphy (Colgate University)
  • Susan Kilonzo (Maseno University)
  • Vivek Moorthy (Florida State University)

“A Pentecostal Ethic? Economic Outcomes from a Randomized Religious Intervention”
  • Lars Harhoff Andersen (University of Copenhagen),
  • Jeanet Sinding Bentzen (University of Copenhagen)

“In the Name of God! Religiosity and the Production of Science”
  • Tommaso Reggiani (Cardiff University)
  • Paolo Santori (Tilburg University)
  • Andrea Fazio (Marche Polytechnic University)

“Blessed are the poor. The Weberian Spirit of Capitalism Under Experimental Scrutiny.”

12:40 – 13:10

Lunch

13:10 – 14:00

Session 3: Poster Session and Coffee
  • Lucas López-Manuel (University of Vigo)

“Religion and the Prosocial Principal”
  • Joanna Williams (University of California, Irvine)

“Religiosity and Education: New Evidence for Nineteenth Century France”
  • Anisha Ghosh (Aix-Marseille School of Economics)

“Legalized abortion and the religious response”
  • Olly Brufal (University of Groningen)
  • Johan Ohler (LSE)

“Regional Culture and Motivation: Evidence from the Western Front of WWI”
  • Iker Arregui-Alegria (Lund University)

“Threat to Identity and Populism: Evidence from Francoist Street Names”
  • Florentine Friedrich (LSE)

“Take Thee to a Nunnery: Holy Orders and Public Goods in 19th-Century France”
  • Mahdi Khesali (University Hamburg)
  • Stefan Voigt (University of Hamburg)
  • Nadia von Jacobi (University of Trento)

“Culture Matters: On the Distal Determinants of the Rule of Law”
  • Allon Vishkin (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)

“A U-Shaped Relation in the Global Variation of Female Olympians from 1920-2016”

14:00 – 15:30

Parallel Session 4A: Industrialization and markets
  • Nathan Nunn (University of British Columbia)
  • Jonathan L. Weigel (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Marina Ngoma (World Bank)
  • Xavier Jaravel (London School of Economics)
  • Clara Sievert (CERGE-EI)

“How Market Access Shapes Wellbeing and Values: Experimental Evidence from the D.R. Congo”
  • Eva Forslund (Stockholm School of Economics)
  • Jaakko Meriläinen (Stockholm School of Economics)
  • Céline Zipfel (Stockholm School of Economics)

“Engines of Empowerment: Cattle Tending, the Milking Machine, and Women in Politics”
  • Sebastian Ellingsen (University of Bristol), Gedeon Lim (Hong Kong University)
  • Quoc-Anh Do (Monash University)

“Communities of Commerce: The Legacy of Chinese Immigration on Java, Indonesia”

14:00 – 15:30

Parallel Session 4B: Autocracy and State Capacity
  • Jeremy Bowles (UCL)
  • Gabriel Koehler-Derrick (NYU-Abu Dhabi)

“Off the Map: Informational Capacity and Local Development in Colonial Ireland”
  • Mikael Elinder (Uppsala University)
  • Oscar Erixson (Uppsala University)
  • Olle Hammar (Linnaeus University)

“Forces of Autocratic Support: Evidence from Russia and the War in Ukraine”
  • Edith Zink (University of Copenhagen)

“After Autocracy”

15:30 – 16:00

Break

16:00 – 17:30

Parallel Session 5A: Islam
  • Akwasi Ampofo (University of Adelaide)
  • Laura Panza (University of Melbourne)
  • Umair Khalil (Deakin University)
  • Francisco Silva (Deakin University)

“Slave Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa: Theory and Evidence”
  • Rohit Ticku (European University Institute)
  • Cosimo Beverelli (University of Modena)

“Trading Epidemics: Evidence from Eid-al-Adha”
  • Aala Abdelgadir (University of Pittsburgh)

“Training the Vanguard: How Arab-educated religious elites catalyzed the development of conservative Islam in Africa”

16:00 – 17:30

Parallel Session 5B: Language and ethnicity
  • Gunes Gokmen (Lund University)
  • Iker Arregui-Alegria (Lund University)
  • Teppo Lindfors (Lund University)

“Basque”
  • Vincenzo Lombardo (University of Naples Parthenope)

“Ethnic composition, identity, and assimilation”
  • Sultan Mehmood (NES)
  • Vladimir Avetian (University Paris-Dauphine)

“Ink and Ire: The Revolutionary Impact of Russian Literature”

19:00

Dinner at ”Det Glade Vanvid”, Læderstræde 3

 

Friday 19 September

8:30 – 9:00

Coffee and croissants
9:00 – 10:30

Session 6: Cultural change
  • Tamara McGavock (Grinnell College & University of Chicago)
  • Shivani Gupta (University of Georgia, USA)
  • Ellen McCullough (University of Georgia)
  • Thomas Woldu Assefa (IFPRI Kenya)
  • Tigabu Getahun (Policy Studies Institute, Ethiopia)

“Sharing is caring: Redistributing unpaid and care work improves mental well-being for both spouses”
  • Teppo Lindfors (Lund University)

“Moment of Madness: Shifting Sentiment and the Dynamics of Revolution in Finnish Civil War”
  • Benjamin Tremblay-Auger (Stanford University)

“The Complex Dynamics of Cultural Traits”

10:30 – 11:00

Break

11:00 – 12:30

Parallel Session 7A: Protests and Violence
  • Alessandro Pizzigolotto (University of Copenhagen)
  • Jaakko Meriläinen (Stockholm School of Economics)
  • Matti Mitrunen (University of Helsinki)
  • Jósef Sigurdsson (Stockholm University)

“Volcanic Protests”
  • Davide Coluccia (University of Bristol)

“Welcoming the Tired and Poor: Grassroots Associations and Immigrant Assimilation During the Age of Mass Migration”
  • Michele Magnani (University of Bologna)
  • Davide Cipullo (Catholic University of Milan)
  • Luca Colombo (Catholic University of Milan)
  • Massimiliano Onorato (University of Bologna)

“Media Sentiment under the Threat of Political Violence”
11:00 – 12:30

Parallel Session 7B: Innovation
  • Edward Pinchbeck (University of Birmingham)
  • Davide Cipullo (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)
  • Luca Repetto (Uppsala University)
  • Jan Bietenbeck (Lund University)

“Human capital shocks and innovation: Evidence from Britain’s Lost Generation”
  • Lars Harhoff Andersen (University of Copenhagen)
  • Tom Raster (LSE)

“From Vagabonds to Virtues: The Ideological Roots of Entrepreneurship”
  • Sara Benetti (University of British Columbia)
 “The Social Consequences of Technological Change: Evidence from U.S. Electrification and Immigrant Labor”
12:30 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 13:50 Session 8: Poster Session and Coffee
Posters: Same as day 1.
13:50 – 14:50 Keynote speech by Ara Norenzayan
14:50 – 16:00 Farewell reception