Tim Besley, JEEA FBBVA Lecture 2017 "Preferences and Values as Cultural Capital"

Tim Besley, London School of Economics, gave the twelveth JEEA-FBBVA lecture, and tenth to be held at the ASSA Meetings in Chicago on Friday, January 6, 2017. The title of the lecture was Preferences and Values as Cultural Capital: Theory and Policy Implications. The lecture was also given at the FBBVA headquarters in Madrid on Thursday May 4 2017. This filmed lecture was in Madrid. This lecture develops a framework where policy influences the determination of preferences and values. It emphasises the two-way relationship between political outcomes and changes in values and preferences. Thus policy choice affects behaviour by not only by changing incentives but also by changing culture. This gives a new role to non-majoritarian political institutions in preserving values. The framework is applied to environmental policy