Institutions Workshop Series | Social Sciences Research Center

We are pleased to announce the launch a new faculty-driven interdisciplinary workshop series to explore the global institutional stability with input from invited speakers who study various dimensions of institutional failure and success. Through these conversations, we hope to better understand how and in what ways, institutions shape our society and future prosperity.

Abstract: Human life is structured by institutions – the rules that create patterns of incentives and expectations which condition how we behave and coordinate with others. Institutions can create the conditions for prosperity and human flourishing, providing individual freedoms, economic opportunity and the capacity for innovation. As history has long shown, they are not guaranteed to do so, but why?

October 8, 2025

4:30 - 7:00pm CT

Location: Social Sciences Division Tea Room, SSRB 201, 1126 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

The Cost of State Building: Evidence from Germany

Speaker: Leander Heldring, Northwestern University

Leander Heldring joined Kellogg in 2020 after receiving his PhD in economics from the University of Oxford. His research interests are in economic development, political economy and economic history, with a particular focus on the role of government in facilitating or stifling innovation, entrepreneurship and growth.

Paper Link: https://uchicago.box.com/s/j08cg7l0fv927npv3lznlczuzn41jjtp (please do not circulate beyond workshop)

Event Listing: https://events.uchicago.edu/event/251683-institutions-workshop-and-kickoff-reception

Please note - Francesco Guala is no longer speaking on October 8 - his talk is being reschedule for a later date.

October 22, 2025

4:30 - 6:30pm CT

Location: Neubauer Collegium, 5701 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637

Constructing a colonial state: The land rights debate in 18th-century Bengal

Speaker: Tirthankar Roy, Professor of Economic History, at the London School of Economics

Abstract

“The principle on which [Akbar, Mughal Emperor] secured his conquest was [to show regard] to the right of the Zemindars, the ancient proprietors of the soil,” said Philip Francis in 1777. Disagreeing radically, his rival Warren Hastings said, “much the greatest part of the Zemindars .. are incapable of judging or acting for themselves, being either minors, or men of weak understandings, or absolute idiots.”

Two colonial administrators in charge of building a European-ruled state in India made these comments about a magnate in the countryside. Their debate reveals the (possibly) universal dilemma of a colonial state project: limited trust in indigenous institutions and limited power to supersede these. How was the problem solved so that a strong empire could grow?

Speaker Biography

I teach South Asia and Global History at the LSE and am the author of Monsoon Economies: India’s History in a Changing Climate, besides other books and articles. My work on economic history tries to answer these questions. Is there a long-term pattern in Indian capitalism? Does history help us understand how capitalism in India works today? How do climatic conditions shape economic change in the long run?

My recent publications include Law and the Economy in Colonial India (with Anand V. Swamy, University of Chicago Press, 2016). The book discusses the diverse influences that shaped British Indian law and shows why it delivered rather poor value to the users. A sequel, Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy (with Anand V. Swamy, University of Chicago Press, 2022) studies the historical roots of modern Indian laws and the persistence of a colonial legacy. Currently in press, Water and Development: The Troubled Economic History of the Arid Tropics (Oxford University Press) explores the idea that the economic emergence of societies in arid and semi-arid tropical regions depended on their ability to extract and recycle water and, in turn, on manipulating the environment in certain ways. The process has been politically tense and has tested federal democracies.

Paper Link: https://uchicago.box.com/s/luiucnqcmfoytmbq8idy6pyo6pr0rgad (please do not circulate beyond workshop)

Event Listing: https://events.uchicago.edu/event/251684-institutions-workshop-with-tirthankar-roy

November 12, 2025

4:30 - 6:30pm CT

Location: SSD Tea Room, SSRB 201, 1126 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Explaining Democratic Erosion

Speaker: Sue Stokes, Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago

Speaker Biography

Susan Stokes is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor and Director of the Chicago Center on Democracy. Her research and teaching interests include democratic theory and how democracy functions in developing societies, distributive politics, and comparative political behavior. Her single and co-authored books include Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America (2001), Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics (2013), and Why Bother? Rethinking Participation in Elections and Protests (2019). She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Paper Link forthcoming

Event Listing: https://events.uchicago.edu/event/251685-institutions-workshop-with-susan-stokes

November 19, 2025

4:30 - 6:30pm CT

Location: SSD Tea Room, SSRB 201, 1126 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

TBD

Speaker: Steve Pincus

I am a historian of Britain and its Empire, of comparative revolutions, comparative empires, and of northern Europe more broadly. I am both a deeply committed archival historian and a scholar who believes profoundly that historians should engage with the social sciences.

Paper Link forthcoming

Event Listing: https://events.uchicago.edu/event/251686-institutions-workshop