Friday 15 May 2026

Over the last fortnight, three members of our team — Despina Gavresi, Cyril Thomson, and Matheus Thompson Bandeira — have been running crash courses in applied econometrics and microeconomics for the wider project team.

As part of an interdisciplinary project, we are constantly learning from one another. These sessions have helped build a stronger shared understanding across the team and support closer collaboration in our work.

By continuing to share knowledge across disciplines, we are building a stronger foundation for research at the Origins Project, supporting new ways of understanding the past. 

Friday 24 April 2026

This week, Professor Carmine Guerriero delivered two presentations of his talk, “Primordial Legal Origins,” hosted by the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University and Harvard University, jointly organized by the Department of Economics and Yale Law School.

These events brought together scholars from multiple disciplines to examine the historical foundations of legal systems and their enduring influence on contemporary institutions.

Monday 02 March 2026

Last week, the Origins Team met to review the first results of our project - we’re excited about what we’re seeing! 

The data is starting to take shape, new questions are emerging, and we’re looking forward to the next phase of research. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue exploring and uncovering new insights. 

Tuesday 13 January 2026

While the direct economic effects of adverse climate shocks are (sadly) evident, their indirect institutional impact is still poorly understood.

Benati and Guerriero show in a paper just published on Economica that, in a panel of 38 most agricultural countries observed over 1960–2018 period, adverse climate shocks push time-inconsistent elites to enact inclusive political institutions and non-elites to embrace strong norms of cooperation.

Shedding light on the impact of climate change on developing countries is one of the key goals of the ORIGINS project.

Find out more here.

Friday 5 December 2025

We are thrilled to announce that on October 1st we have started a new 2.1-million-euro grant (FIS 2023) on "Institutional Resilience to Climate Change" funded by MUR and granted to our director, Carmine Guerriero. Thanks to this generous funding, we have welcomed in Bologna thirteen new colleagues as either postdocs or consultants: Matheus T. Bandeira, Catherine Bishop-Allen, Rory Cheng, Dennys Frenez, Despina Gavresi, Xosé Hermoso-Buxán, Giancarlo Lago, Vincent Morel, Giordano Spiga, Cyril Thomson, Andrea Titolo, Sara Zaia and Siyan Zhou.

Looking forward to an inspiring and productive project ahead!