Spring SoCal Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Workshop
Jack W. Peltason Center for the Study of Democracy
University of California, Irvine
Friday, April 10th, 2026
All paper presentations will be in Social and Behavioral Science Gateway (SBSG) 1517.
8:30am - 9:00am: Pastries, Bagels, and Coffee
9:00am - 10:00am: Constantine Manda (UC Irvine) | “Migration Risk or Racial Selectivity? Evidence from the 2025 U.S. Travel Restrictions”
Discussant: Sara Goodman (UC Irvine)
10:00am - 11:00am: Ryan Mundy (UC Irvine) | “Inherited Influence: The Political Giving of Billionaire Heirs.”
Discussant: Joshua Ferrer (American University)
11:00am - 11:15am: Break
11:15am - 12:15pm: Samantha Vortherms (UC Irvine) | “The Illusion of Foreign Capital: Estimating Round-Trip FDI in China using Firm-level Data.”
Discussant: Andrew Sinclair (Cal Tech)
12:15pm - 1:15pm: Lunch
1:15pm - 2:15pm: Barney Chen (UCLA) | “Capital in the Capitol: Congressional Trades Resemble Uninformed Retail Trading”
Discussant: David Brady (UCSC)
2:15pm - 3:15pm: Gabriel Lopez-Moctezuma (Cal Tech) | “Electoral Institutions, Career Concerns and Party Discipline: Evidence from Speech and Voting Behavior in the Mexican Congress”
Discussant: Peyton Howard (UC Irvine)
3:15pm - 3:30pm: Coffee Break
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Amna Salam (UCSD) | “Supreme Court Appointments, the Rule of Four, and the Shrinking Docket.”
Discussant: Mathew Beckmann (UC Irvine)
4:45pm - 6:30pm: Reception—Eureka, University Town Center, Irvine.