Economics Research Seminar – Dr Joseph Gomes

Title: Symbolic Policies Cause Economic Harm: Cognitive and Behavioural Responses to Nationalist Exclusion

Date: 18 February 2026

Time: 13:30 – 14:30

Venue: Online Only

Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/36109521993017?p=K6M5mClqfQj7S4R7aD

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link:

Economics Research Seminar – Dr Joseph Gomes

Speaker:         Dr Joseph Gomes

Joseph Gomes is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Economics School of Louvain and the Research Director at the  Institute of Economic and Social Research (IRES) at UCLouvain; a Research Affiliate at CEPR (International Trade and Regional Economics, and Development Economics programmes), and an Invited Researcher at J-PAL.  His primary research interests are in the fields of Development Economics, Political Economy, and Spatial Economics, with a focus on Identity and Diversity.

Abstract:

Ethnonationalist governments adopt symbolic policies that challenge the status of ethnic and religious minorities as equal members of the nation. We propose that exposure to such policies reduces the cognitive bandwidth of marginalised groups, leading to suboptimal economic decisions. We test this hypothesis in India, where the Muslim minority population has faced exclusionary policies. About 1,800 gig workers performed data entry and information processing tasks in a field experiment. In the course of completing their tasks, workers were randomly exposed to social media content referencing symbolic exclusionary policies. We measured decision making by allowing workers to choose between two payment contracts, one of which would objectively lead to higher earnings for a given worker. Despite no change in productivity, treated participants were significantly more likely to select economically suboptimal (‘wrong’) contracts, leading to lower earnings. We explore additional data, including cognitive tests and categorisations of mistakes, that suggest that wrong contract choice is driven by increased cognitive load. Our findings demonstrate how even purely symbolic exclusionary policies can have tangible economic consequences, potentially exacerbating marginalisation of minority groups through cognitive and psychological channels.