In the News
March 30, 2026
Event
April 9, 2026
Hard questions are our starting point.
The Berkeley Economy & Society Initiative (BESI) investigates political and economic power to reveal how these forces shape the practice of democracy and the pursuit of shared prosperity.
The latest at BESI
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EventApril 22, 2026
Suburban blues: The clash of local and national politics in America’s suburbs
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EventApril 27, 2026
California climate governance: How to move forward
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EventMay 1, 2026
Muskism: A guide for the perplexed
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Event RecapMarch 25, 2026
What do the rich owe the rest of us?: A conversation on taxation and democracy
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In the NewsMarch 20, 2026
Project Syndicate: ‘Is the private credit boom going bust?’
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White PaperMarch 12, 2026
California’s unaffordability problem
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Journal ArticleFebruary 18, 2026
Light out on vulnerable communities: ZIP code-level spatial examination of inequitable grid reliability in Portland and Seattle
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AnnouncementJanuary 26, 2026
Designated Emphasis in Political Economy student Rebekah Jones named a 2025 Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar
Big problems. Big ideas.
Our research focuses on some of the most urgent threats to genuine, sustainable, and broad-based prosperity: climate change, technological disruption, and the distortions and demands of unfettered capitalism. We have launched major new programs on the political economy of California and green industrial strategy.
Advancing the interdisciplinary study of political economy
BESI funds crucial discoveries at the doctoral level.
We’re proud to support the Designated Emphasis (DE) in Political Economy at UC Berkeley. DE students participate in vital discussions outside their home disciplines, enhancing dialogues and enabling research at the cutting edge of scholarship.
Research spotlight
Revisiting network neutrality for the enhanced internet
This project revisits the net neutrality debate in light of contemporary technological realities. Distributed caching infrastructure is no longer incidental; it is functionally necessary for high-performance internet service. The authors propose democratizing caching by requiring that first-hop ISPs offer standardized caching services as a component of baseline broadband access.
Visual stimulation in digital content
An increasingly important and overlooked dimension of digital content quality for kids is the level of visual stimulation. This project uses computer vision to quantify these overstimulating visual features that are linked to adverse cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
The development and adoption of religious AI: The technological restructuring of American religion?
This project looks at how AI is being developed and adopted within religious organizations. This is a project that spans disciplinary boundaries, bringing digital sociology and the sociology of culture into conversation with theology and religious studies.
California’s unaffordability problem
California is less affordable and poorer than it should be given the strength of our economy. In Part 1 of our white paper series on making California more affordable, BESI researcher Sam Trachtman lays out the basics facts, including that California has the nation’s highest poverty rate when accounting for cost of living.
Light out on vulnerable communities: ZIP code-level spatial examination of inequitable grid reliability in Portland and Seattle
In a paper for the May 2026 issue of the journal Energy Policy, BESI climate fellow Kathryn Chelminski and her co-authors Guixing Wei and Gian Pietro Bellocca investigate how utility governance structure affects electrical grid reliability in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.
Modelling the impacts of policy sequencing on energy decarbonization
Many countries assume that leading with subsidies (“carrots”) reduces the need for punitive policies (“sticks”) to achieve decarbonization goals. In this paper for Nature, co-authored by BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling, the authors use an economic model that allows them to compare carrot- and stick-first policy decisions, finding that a carrot-first strategy still requires similar-sized sticks to a stick-first approach to achieve comparable levels of decarbonization.
The geoeconomic turn in decarbonization
In this article, published in Nature, BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling gives an account of a major shift in global decarbonization politics — from international cooperation on the costs of climate change mitigation to competition for the benefits of clean technologies.
Capital, earth, and image: Photography in India’s mining landscapes
In a new article for Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, environmental historian Matthew Shutzer traces how images of extractive technologies have shifted from thematizing social questions about labor and industrial capitalism to serving as representations of the ecological crises of the present.
How the economic and political geography of the United States fuels right-wing populism — and what the Democratic Party can do about it
In this essay for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, BESI director Paul Pierson and his frequent collaborator, Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, describe the shifting coalitional bases of America’s two major parties and how relate to the political-economic geography of the U.S.
The predistribution solution
Former Roosevelt Institute senior research Sunny Malhotra and BESI Capitalism and Democracy affiliate Steve Vogel and analyze the American political economy past and present through the lens of predistribution.
Fairness according to whom? Divergent perceptions of fairness among white and Black Americans and its effect on trade attitudes
BESI Climate affiliated faculty member Ryan Brutger and Designated Emphasis in Political Economy student Daniel Lobo co-authored this article for the American Political Science Review, which reviews their survey of white and Black Americans on their attitudes toward trade.
Toward an interdisciplinary political economy of wages
In a November 2025 article for the journal Politics & Society, UC Berkeley Political Economy director and BESI steering committee member Steve Vogel argues that that economists should bring power into the heart of their analysis of wage formation.
Revisiting network neutrality for the enhanced internet
This project revisits the net neutrality debate in light of contemporary technological realities. Distributed caching infrastructure is no longer incidental; it is functionally necessary for high-performance internet service. The authors propose democratizing caching by requiring that first-hop ISPs offer standardized caching services as a component of baseline broadband access.
Visual stimulation in digital content
An increasingly important and overlooked dimension of digital content quality for kids is the level of visual stimulation. This project uses computer vision to quantify these overstimulating visual features that are linked to adverse cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
The development and adoption of religious AI: The technological restructuring of American religion?
This project looks at how AI is being developed and adopted within religious organizations. This is a project that spans disciplinary boundaries, bringing digital sociology and the sociology of culture into conversation with theology and religious studies.
The Social Effects and Normativity of Data-Mining, Algorithms, and the Digital Economy Research Team (‘DADE’)
The digital economy has penetrated nearly every aspect of society. This research project seeks to examine the effects of this prolific phenomenon on our social and personal development, our ability to access basic needs and social services, and our political and legal institutions and culture.
California’s unaffordability problem
California is less affordable and poorer than it should be given the strength of our economy. In Part 1 of our white paper series on making California more affordable, BESI researcher Sam Trachtman lays out the basics facts, including that California has the nation’s highest poverty rate when accounting for cost of living.
Series introduction: Making California more affordable – A policy roadmap
Read BESI director Paul Pierson’s introduction to our three-part white paper series on solving California’s affordability problem.
What drives high costs in blue states?
BESI Political Economy of California senior researcher Samuel Trachtman explains the red-blue state cost-of-living divide.
No publications found for Finance and Democracy
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