11:00 - 13:15
Thursday-Panel
Chair/s:
Manuel Bagues
Discussant/s:
Shared by Panellists
Meeting Room B

Michael Strebel
Trading Wealth for Political Control? The Political Economy of Territorial Reforms

Yael Shmaryahu Yeshurun
Political Geography: Class VS. Ethnicity in Contested Cities

Julio Cáceres, Antoni-Italo De Moragas, Gabriel Facchini, Ignacio González
Intergroup Contact and Nation Building: Evidence from Military Service in Spain

Manuel Bagues, Chris Roth
Interregional Contact and National Identity

Nuno Dr. Morgado
Geopolitical constraints? Explaining Geography and Potential in International Politics
Interregional Contact and National Identity
Manuel Bagues, Chris Roth
University of Warwick

We study the long-run effects of contact with individuals from other regions on beliefs, preferences and national identity. We combine a natural experiment, the random assignment of male conscripts to different locations throughout Spain, with tailored survey data. Being randomly assigned to complete military service outside of one's region of residence fosters contact with conscripts from other regions, and increases sympathy towards people from the region of service, measured several decades later. We also observe an increase in identification with Spain for individuals originating from regions with peripheral nationalism. Our evidence suggests that intergroup exposure in early adulthood can have long-lasting effects on individual preferences and national identity.