Anton Boltachka
anton.boltachka [at] phd.unibocconi.it
About Me
Welcome to my personal webpage! I’m Anton Boltachka, a PhD student in Economics at Bocconi University. Previously, I worked as a Scientific Assistant in the team of Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich. On this page, I share insights into my research, academic journey, and a bit more about myself.
Curriculum Vitae
() [Last update: Nov 26, 2023]
My Research
Publications
- RACE-RELATED RESEARCH IN ECONOMICS, joint
with Arun Advani, Elliott Ash, David Cai, and Imran Rasul, Economica, forthcoming
View abstract
Issues of racial justice and economic inequalities between racial and ethnic groups have risen to the top of public debate. Economists’ ability to contribute to these debates is based on the body of race-related research. We study the volume and content of race-related research in economics. Our analysis is based on a corpus of 225,000 economics publications from 1960 to 2020, to which we apply an algorithmic approach to classify race-related work. We present three new facts. First, since 1960, less than 2% of economics publications have been race-related, representing a cumulative body of just over 4,000 race-related publications in economics since 1960. There is an uptick in such work in the mid-1990s. Among the top five journals, this increase is driven by the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Political Economy. Econometrica and the Review of Economic Studies have each cumulatively published fewer than 20 race-related articles since 1960, corresponding to 0.3% of all publications in those two journals. Second, in terms of content, while over 50% of race-related publications in the 1970s focused on Black individuals, by the 2010s this had fallen to 20%. There has been a steady decline in the share of race-related research on discrimination since the 1980s, alongside a rise in the share of studies on identity. Finally, we apply our algorithm to NBER and CEPR working papers posted over the last four decades to study an earlier stage of the research process. We document a concentration of race-related research in a few fields, and its continued absence from many others—a result that holds even within the subset of research examining issues of inequality or diversity. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for economists’ ability to contribute to debates on race and ethnicity in the economy.The Graph
Under Review
- MEDIA BIAS AND CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTICISM,
joint with Elliott Ash, Sergio Galletta, and Matteo Pinna, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (revise and resubmit)
View abstract
This study examines the impact on climate change attitudes of exposure to Fox News Channel (FNC), the top-rated U.S. cable television channel known for its conservative bias. Our findings indicate a statistically significant shift towards climate change skepticism and a decline in support for climate change mitigation policies. The findings remain robust across multiple empirical methodologies, including addressing the endogeneity of viewership through an instrumental variable (IV) approach, and are consistent across a variety of survey datasets. Our research adds significant value to the existing literature on media's influence on beliefs, highlighting the role media plays in guiding societal discourse and comprehension.The Graph
Working Papers
In Progress
Immigration and Social Distance: Evidence from Newspapers during the Age of Mass Migration, joint with Elliott Ash, Gloria Gennaro, Dominik Hangartner, Alessandra Stampi-Bombelli
[▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░]95%
Race-related Research in Economics (Part 2), joint with Arun Advani, Elliott Ash, David Cai, and Imran Rasul
[▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░]60%
Persuasive Effects of Language Used in Political Advertising, joint with Elliott Ash, Amir Feder, Lena Song.
[▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] 55%
Listening to the Dictators: How Do Narratives of Authoritarian Leaders Shape Policy?
[▓░░░░░░░░░] 15%
Email Philosophy
Please use my academic email (anton.boltachka@phd.unibocconi.it) for all academic-related matters. For urgent issues (though most matters are typically non-urgent) or long-term discussions, feel free to contact me via my personal email (aboltachka@gmail.com).
This page will be updated regularly with new research, publications, and insights. Thank you for visiting!