Riots, revolutions, democratisation, and information cascades

Chris Ellis, John Fender, 26 October 2011

For the Arab Spring it was Twitter; for the summer riots in London it was BlackBerry Messenger. This column explores how the latest technology is helping to accelerate ‘information cascades’, where people make decisions based on what they see other people doing – and getting away with.

Major world events, such as the Arab Spring of 2011, the fall of communism just over 20 years ago in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and the financial crisis of 2007-09, sometimes come as a complete surprise to almost everyone. It is of course important to try to understand such events, but it is sometimes not easy to know how even to begin to analyse them.

Topics: Politics and economics, Productivity and Innovation
Tags: Arab Spring, Behavioural economics, information technology, London riots, revolution, riots, social networking

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Austerity and Anarchy: Budget Cuts and Social Unrest in Europe, 1919-2009

Hans-Joachim Voth, Jacopo Ponticelli, 9 August 2011

In the wake of this week's London riots, some commentators have linked the youth unrest to budget cuts. The authors of CEPR DP8513 explore the historical basis for this view and find that austerity and violence have tended to go hand in hand.

Vox users can download CEPR Discussion Paper 8516 for free here, and a summary of the paper can be found here.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: www.cepr.org/DP8513
Topics: Global crisis, Macroeconomic policy, Poverty and income inequality, Welfare state and social Europe
Tags: demonstrations, Europe, government deficits, instability, London riots, public expediture, riots and unrest