The illusion of modern-day meritocracy
That is, most observers—novelists, economists, and laypersons alike—tend to assume that labor income now plays a much bigger role than inherited wealth in shaping people’s lives, and that human...
View ArticlePersistence of Culture (and Institutions)
“How persistent are cultural traits? Using data on anti-Semitism in Germany, we find local continuity over 600 years. Jews were often blamed when the Black Death killed at least a third of Europe’s...
View ArticleEducation and Human Capital Externalities (in Benin)
Wantchekon, Klasnja and Novta have a really cool paper (forthcoming in QJE) investigating the relationship between human capital and development: Using a unique dataset on students from the first...
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