Palaash Bhargava
palaashbhargava.bsky.social
Palaash Bhargava
@palaashbhargava.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Chicago
Development and Labour Economist focusing on Social Networks and Education.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/palaashbhargava
10/ Our findings highlight how deep-rooted cultural transmission shapes modern attention to the environment.

You can read the full paper here: palaashbhargava.github.io/Bhargava_Cli...
palaashbhargava.github.io
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
9/ The U-shape emerges because individuals learn about their environment for two reasons: optimizing resource use in stable conditions & protecting against extremes. 🌿🌪️
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
8/ We propose a theoretical framework where the value of attention to the environment depends on perceived stability, shaped through cultural transmission of ancestral experiences.
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
7/ Why this pattern? Attention is costly, but information is valuable—both for adapting to stable conditions and preparing for extreme events. 🌍⚖️
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
6/ Across all specifications, we find a U-shaped relationship! Both highly stable and highly unstable ancestral climates lead to greater attention to the environment today, while intermediate variability results in lower attention.
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
5/ We construct a measure of ancestral climate variability—capturing deviations from normal temperatures for each ancestral generation—and study its effect on self-reported attention to the environment from WVS and level of environmental themes in folklore. 🌱📜
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
4/ We match historical temperature data (1600–1920s) with ethnic group locations from Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas. Using Ethnologue, we link World Value Survey respondents to their ethnic groups via their mother tongue & incorporate folklore data. 📖
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
3/ To document this, we combine historical climate data with ethnographic, linguistic & global survey data. We examine whether ancestral climate variability affects how much attention individuals and groups pay to the environment today. 📊
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
2/ Experiences of your ancestors are passed on as stories. Your grandma tells you a story that her great grandma told her once. These stories can shape beliefs including the ones related to the level of attention our environment warrants.
March 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Would love to join! :)
December 20, 2024 at 10:42 PM
Thank you! :)
December 19, 2024 at 5:25 AM
Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for making this list! Would love to be added.
December 18, 2024 at 4:51 PM
Thank you for the bump up, Natalie! I am glad you liked the paper.
November 30, 2024 at 6:31 AM
Thanks Stephen! As Sandy mentioned, the reason behind running the experiment in two levels was to figure out how local effects can conflict with general equilibrium effects. And that is exactly what I document. Happy to chat more about it :)
November 30, 2024 at 6:30 AM
Thank you for sharing this paper, Sandy!
November 30, 2024 at 6:28 AM
I am glad you liked the paper, Umut!
November 30, 2024 at 6:27 AM
I guess it would be interesting to see if this finding does extend to workplace in general. I would love to carry that research h out if given a chance.
November 28, 2024 at 2:36 AM