Lydia Assouad, from LSE, will present her research. 

Leadership and Nation-Building

How do individual leaders shape nation-building beyond policy design? This paper examines the case of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. Following the country’s creation in 1923, Atatürk designed nation-building reforms and traveled extensively across the country to disseminate them. Using a difference-in- differences design and leveraging variation from incidental stops along his routes, I find that Atatürk's visits led to a 0.6 percentage point increase (a 10 percent increase) in the adoption of first names in “Pure Turkish,” the new language created by the state to promote a unified national identity. The effect was strongest in places where elite-led nationalist associations already existed and in areas where Atatürk engaged with local elites rather than the masses. Additionally, his visits enhanced policy implementation by predicting the establishment of local branches of his party, which further institutionalized the language reform through localized propaganda efforts. I also document long-run effects on naming and educational outcomes, while political effects are more limited and only appear in areas where local institutions were established. These findings challenge the view that nation-building is primarily driven by a leader’s ability to mobilize the masses through personal charisma. Instead, Atatürk's success stemmed from his strategic engagement with local elites and the establishment of institutions, ensuring the long-term persistence of his reforms.