In 1960, 94% of American doctors and lawyers were white men: by 2010, the fraction was just 62%. Similar changes in other high-skilled occupations have occurred throughout the US economy over the last 60 years. Given that the innate talent for these professions is not likely to be any different across groups, the change in […]
Capitalists in the Twenty-First Century
Suppose you happen to meet a very high earner. How does she typically make her money? Is she likely a human capitalist, in that she makes most of her income from her labor or other human capital? Or is she likely a financial capitalist, in that she makes most of her income from her portfolio […]
Insuring the Poor: Experimental evidence from contract farming in Kenya
Throughout the world, the poor purchase less insurance (Rampini and Viswanathan 2016), and insurance markets are especially thin in the developing world. This could reflect supply-side problems: insurance is a complicated and highly regulated product, reliant on effective financial and legal institutions. Yet surprisingly, the binding constraint is often on the demand side. Across many […]
Life-cycle benefits of early childhood programs: evidence from an influential early childhood program
A substantial body of evidence shows that high-quality early childhood programs boost the skills of disadvantaged children.[1] Most of this research reports short-run treatment effects of these programs on cognitive test scores, school readiness, and measures of early-life social behavior. A few studies analyze longer-term benefits in terms of completed education, adult health, crime, and […]
Wealth Taxation and Wealth Accumulation: Theory and Evidence from Denmark
What are the economic effects of taxing household wealth? While an enormous literature estimates the impact of taxes on labor supply and taxable income, much less is known about how taxes affect the supply of capital. The lack of evidence makes it hard to assess the desirability of taxing top-end wealth, a proposal that has […]
The First 2,000 Days: Investing in Children’s Skills Through Early Intervention
Children from poorer backgrounds typically have lower cognitive and socio-emotional skills. This is due to differences in the quality of the environment, with disadvantaged children facing lower family incomes, higher levels of stress, poorer parenting practices, and less academic stimulation.[1] Consequently, living in disadvantaged circumstances early in life is frequently associated with poorer health, education, […]
Consumer spending during unemployment: evidence from US bank account data
Nearly all of us experience unemployment at some point in our careers. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that 90% of baby boomers have been out of work at least once in their lives. Unemployment is stressful in part because many people do not have enough savings to maintain their standard of living […]
Jury verdicts: evidence from eighteenth century London of the dangers of sequential decision-making
Every day, people make numerous decisions and judgments. Although these decisions differ in many dimensions – including the degree of deliberation, the number of people involved, and the stakes or consequences – many are sequential in nature. Research in a wide range of contexts has documented potential biases that can arise with such sequential decision-making, […]
The Age of Mass Migration: contrasting economic and political effects
Over the past 40 years or so, both Europe and the United States have experienced a dramatic rise in immigration (Frey, 2014; Hanson and McIntosh, 2016). These trends have renewed interest in the effects of diversity on both economic growth and social cohesion. Despite the potential benefits from diversity typically predicted by economic analysis (Alesina […]
Performance management and workplace culture: evidence from a US trucking firm
There is a growing consensus among economists that management practices are an important explanation for the large observed variation in productivity among firms. Different firms often adopt different practices, even in a narrowly defined industry. In turn, some researchers have speculated that this variety is related to differences in the less tangible attributes of firms. […]
