Political Giving, Philanthropy and Democracy, with keynote address by Benjamin Lockwood (Wharton)

This conference has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement N°948516).

In 2021, Julia Cagé received an ERC Starting Grant for her project CamPAign Finance, InfoRmaTIon and InfluenCe: A ComprehensIve APproAch Using Individual-Level Data and CompuTEr Science Tools (PARTICIPATE) which examines the behaviour of small donors in Western Europe and North America, as well as the lack of representativeness among candidates and elected officials. 

As the project draws to a close, the Department and Sciences Po's Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP) would like to invite you to the ERC PARTICIPATE's closing conference with keynote speaker Benjamin Lockwood, Associate Professor in the Business Economics and Public Policy department at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania).

Benjamin Lockwood studies issues at the intersection of public economics, behavioural economics, and normative economics. His work studies the use of taxes both for reducing inequality and as an instrument to change behaviour. Recent projects explore the use of soda and sweetened beverage taxes to improve health outcomes, the optimal design of state-run lotteries, and the optimal design of capital and wealth taxes.

Learn more about Benjamin Lockwood (personal website)

Guest speakers : 

• Yaële Aferiat (Association Française des Fundraisers - AFF)
• François Debiesse (Association pour le développement du mécénat industriel et commercial - Admical)
• Gabrielle Fack (Dauphine-PSL) 
• Malka Guillot (HEC Liège)
• Laurence Lepetit (France Générosités) 
• Bathylle Missika (OCDE)
• Anne Monier (UNIGE)
• Sarah Smith (University of Bristol)
• Charlie Tronche (HelloAsso)
• Camille Urvoy (Mannheim)

*Registration is free but mandatory*
If you would like to attend, please fill out the online form before April 29th (link)

For the detailed programme, use the dropdown menus below or download it (PDF 226 KB) !

Julia Cagé is Professor of Economics and member of the Department since 2014. She is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), where she leads the Research and Policy Network on “Media Plurality”, as well as of the CESifo Research Network.

She conducts research in political economy and economic history, with a particular focus on media economics, political participation, and voting behaviour. After completion of PARTICIPATE, Julia will be pursue her research with the continued support of the ERC. She was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant in December 2025 for a new project Elections, Ecological Inference and Social Capital in Historical Perspective (ECOSOCIAL). This grant will enable her to investigate the historical evolution of political cleavages and socio-economic inequalities in the United States and Europe, while proposing innovative solutions to long-standing problems of ecological inference.

Julia was the laureate of the Best Young French Economist Award in 2023 and the Yrjö Jahnsson Award in 2025.

Julia Cagé's website