Publications

2024

1. 

   [Statistics]

   Book Review of ’Principles of Statistical Analyses: Learning from Randomized Experiments’ by Ery Arias-Castro.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of the Royal Statistical Society–Series A: Forthcoming,  2024

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   This short review discusses a recent book, ’Principles of Statistical Analyses: Learning from Randomized Experiments’ by Ery Arias-Castro.

2. 

   [Political Science]

   Book Review of ’After Authoritarianism: Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability’ by Monika Nalepa.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Democratization: Forthcoming,  2024

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   TBA

3. 

   [Statistics]

   Book Review of ’The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality’ by Nick Huntington-Klein.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of the Royal Statistical Society–Series A: Forthcoming,  2024,  vol. 187,  no. 3, pp. 853

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   This short review discusses a recent book, ’The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality’ by Nick Huntington-Klein.

4. 

   [Political Science]

   Book Note on ’Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence’ by Siniša Malešević.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of Peace Research,  2024

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   This brief note presents a concise overview of a recent book, ’Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence’ by Siniša Malešević.

2023

1. 

   [Psychology]

   Book Review of ’The Power Of Experiments: Decision Making In A Data-Driven World’ by Michael Luca & Max H. Bazerman.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Personnel Psychology,  2023,  vol. 76,  no. 4, pp. 1219-1221

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   What should a letter from the National Tax Authority include to maximize tax payments? How can discrimination be minimized in online markets? Is it possible that a brief two-line notification to students’ parents can result in a substantial reduction in class absenteeism? This review essay discusses the new book by Luca & Bazerman (2021) which provides answers to these and numerous other questions.

2. 

   [Political Science]

   Book Review of ’Voicing Politics: How Language Shapes Public Opinion’ by Efrén Pérez & Margit Tavits.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Democratization,  2023,  vol. 30,  no. 8, pp. 1628-1630

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   Can languages influence political preferences? How can the influence of language be accurately separated from culture? Does language shape public opinion? And why is language important for democracy? This paper reviews a recent book by Pérez and Tavits (2022) that sheds light on these inquiries.

3. 

   [Economics]

   Book Review of ’Social Preferences: An Introduction to Behavioural Economics and Experimental Research’ by Michalis Drouvelis.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of Economic Methodology (ahead-of-print),  2023

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   Over the past few decades, the subject of social preferences has held significant importance in economics. This paper offers an analysis of the recent book by Drouvelis (2021), discussing its merits and situating its position within the existing literature.

4. 

   [Political Science]

   Commissioned Book Review of ’Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century’ by Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Political Studies Review,  2023,  vol. 21,  no. 4, pp. np7-np8

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   Reflecting on the history of the twentieth century, one of the most striking phenomena in the political realm is dictatorships. Why does the world witness significantly fewer of them today? Was the apparent omnipotence of dictators merely an illusion? Or have they transformed into different, concealed forms? This review delves into the new book by Guriev and Treisman (2022), which addresses these very questions.

5. 

   [Economics]

   Book Review of ’The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale’ by John List.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Public Choice,  2023,  vol. 194, pp. 229-230

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   Can every idea be scaled? Is there an inherent factor in a business or public policy proposal that inherently makes it a winning concept, or is everything contingent on its execution? This review explores the new book by List (2022), which delves into these questions.

2022

1. 

   [Economics]

   Book Review of ’Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters’ by Steven Pinker.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics,  2022,  vol. 101, pp. 951

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   What is rationality? Does it vary among different branches of science (e.g., economics and psychology)? Is it a limited resource, and how should we approach it? This review examines the new book by Pinker (2021), which addresses these questions.

2. 

   [Economics]

   Book Review of ’Noise: A Flaw In Human Judgment’ by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy,  2022,  vol. 6,  no. 1, pp. 53-54

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   Humans making decisions, at large, are not strictly rational, but sensitive to many external circumstances, or contexts. Examples of these include weather conditions, successes or failures of their favoured sports teams or even the time that has passed since lunch. Anyone who has been exposed to popular results from Behavioural Economics will not be really surprised by these instances. However, such context sensitivity also applies to university admission officers who have to judge candidates’ academic merits on cloudy or sunny days; to medical doctors who tend to be much more willing to prescribe opioids to patients in their last working hours; or even to federal judges who are significantly more condescending to the accused person in nasty weather conditions outside. Are these cases problematic indeed? Many might guess that on average these errors may cancel out. However, the authors of Noise argue this conjecture is neither correct nor harmless from the social viewpoint.

2019

1. 

   [Economics]

   Book Review of ’How We Misunderstand Economics and Why It Matters’ by David Leiser and Yhonatan Shemesh.

   Egor Bronnikov

   Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy,  2019,  vol. 3,  no. 1, pp. 46-47

   Abstract      HTML            PDF      

   Laypeople – in their majority – do not realize the subtleties of physics or biology, or come along with ready-made judgements about medicine or chemistry. This sequence could be continued and economics would not be an exception – yet it is. And way too many common judgments on economic issues turn out to be wrong. Examples abound: laypeople do not realize the impact of a drop in demand on market price changes, object to a tax rise even if it certainly leads to the overall improvement of future public welfare, fail to see the connection between real estate prices and interest rates, neglect the adverse consequences of price regulation, get lost in unemployment-inflation trade-off (the Phillips curve), and neglect opportunity costs when making their own decisions. Why is it so, and what is much more important – why should we bother about it? David Leiser and Yhonatan Shemesh provide an elegant and striking analysis of the behavioural origins of public misperceptions of the logic and development of modern economics, and of their implications for public policy.