2025 Alumni Conference: Program

ALUMNI CONFERENCE
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2025
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

   
09:00 – 09:30 Breakfast and Registration
   
09:30 – 09:50 Welcome and Introduction
  Alexandra Benham, Lee Benham, Mary Shirley, Ronald Coase Institute, USA
   
09:50 – 10:00 Conveying Your Research
  Alexandra Benham, Ronald Coase Institute, USA
   
10:00 – 11:00 I. Current Research by Alumni
   
  Algorithmic Governance Solutions, Institutional Gaps, and
Political Control in Central Asia: Evidence from Kazakhstan
  Michael Rochlitz, University of Oxford, UK
   
  The Lingering Shadow of Tear Gas: How Political Conflicts
Shape Public Policy Efficacy in Hong Kong
  Derek Huo, University of Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong
   
  Power Transition and Succession in Dynastic Organizations
  Xinyu Fan, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China
   
  Religious Orders and State-Building
  Marcos Salgado, FGV Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
   
  The Reverse Cargo Cult:
Why Authoritarian Governments Lie to Their People
  Konstantin Sonin, University of Chicago, USA
   
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break
   
11:30 – 12:30 II. Current Research by Alumni
   
  Unintended Consequences of Nudges
  Maroš Servátka, Macquarie Business School, Australia
   
  Language as a Form of Formal and Informal Institution
in Accounting Communication
  Asheq Rahman, Auckland University of Technology, NZ
   
  Satisfaction with Democracy Does Predict Democratic Behaviors
  Alberto Simpser, ITAM, Mexico
   
  Gender-Based Pricing in the Flat-Sharing Markets of New Zealand
  William Cheung, University of Auckland, NZ
   
  Trust and Social Relations in Financing Decisions:
Evidence from Chinese Households
  Fali Huang, Singapore Management University, Singapore
   
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
   
13:30 – 14:00 Special Lecture
   
  Equilibrium Institutions and Their Determinants
  Sebastian Galiani, University of Maryland, USA
   
14:00 – 14:30 Authors' Perspectives on Their New Books
   
  The Dual-Track Business Environment for Chinese Private Firms
  Cheryl Xiaoning Long, Xiamen University and Xiamen University Malaysia, China and Malaysia; and Lixin Colin Xu, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China
   
  Handbook on Institutions and Complexity
  Bernardo Mueller, University of Brasilia, Brazil
   
  Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Second Edition
  Mary Shirley, Ronald Coase Institute, USA
   
  Adaptive Governance of Grassland: Logic and Practices
  Lu Yu, Zhejiang University, Chiina
   
14:30 – 15:00 Coffee break
   
15:00 – 16:00 III. Current Research by Alumni
   
  Internalizing Externalities through Ecological Compensation:
Evidence from Transboundary Water Pollution in China
  Xiaoxi Wang, Zhejiang University, China
   
  Citizen-Centered Rule of Law
  Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Leiden University, Netherlands
   
  Nested Property Rights in State-Owned Rangeland
  Lu Yu, Zhejiang University, China
   
  Optimal Share-Fishing Contracts with Heterogeneous Transaction
Costs: A Double Learning Approach
  Yiming He, South China University of Technology, China
   
  Parental Peer Effects and Educational Investment:
Evidence from a Field Experiment in China
  Le Lyla Zhang, Macquarie University, Australia
   
16:00 – 17:00 Wrap-up Discussion
   
  RCI Research Grant Program
  Divide and Deforest: The Perverse Incentives of Land Regularization in the Brazilian Amazon
  Kathryn Baragwanath, University of Melbourne, Australia
   
  Career paths, research topics, data, methods
   
17:00 Reception
   
18:00 Festive Dinner and Award Ceremony
ALSO SEE

2025 Conference

2024 Conference

2023 Conference