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Monday, 13 October, 2025

Sinara Gharibyan: Essays on Economic History and Political Economy

Dissertation Committee:

Christian Ochsner, Dr. rer. pol.  (CERGE-EI, chair)

prof. Ing. Štěpán Jurajda, Ph.D., DSc. (CERGE-EI)

Vasily Korovkin, Ph.D. (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Sebastian Ottinger, Ph.D. (CERGE-EI)

Defense Committee:

prof. PhDr. Michal Bauer, Ph.D., DSc. (CERGE-EI, chair)

doc. Nikolas Mittag, Ph.D. (CERGE-EI)

doc. Ing. Josef Montag, Ph.D. (Faculty of Law, Charles University)

Meeting link:

https://cerge-ei.webex.com/cerge-ei/j.php?MTID=m8d7d7e2b2afc42ea31fdddba14debe6e

Meeting number: 2740 605 2456

Meeting password: 628631

Abstract:

This dissertation examines how historical events shape long-term socio-political and economic outcomes, focusing on memory, gender, and human capital formation. I use different historical shocks in quasi-natural experimental settings and apply state-of-the-art empirical methods to investigate the impact of war, memory, and geography on political behavior and economic development.
The first study asks whether family or collective memory plays a greater role in shaping political preferences. Using the case of Armenia it shows that both family memory and collective remembrance of perceived Russian “betrayals”—during World War I and again in 2020—continue to influence contemporary voting behavior. The second study asks how large-scale war affects gendered political behavior. It focuses on interwar Austria and examines the impact of World War I casualties. The findings show that war losses led to increased political engagement among women and contributed to long-term ideological shifts. The third study explores whether geographic variation in mortality drives human capital investment; focusing on 19th-century Armenia, it finds that areas with lower mortality rates experienced higher educational attainment and early demographic transitions. Together, these studies highlight the persistent influence of historical shocks on societies and contribute to research in economic history, political economy, and development.

Full Text: "Essays on Economic History and Political Economy"