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The Economics of Faith: Using an Apocalyptic Prophecy to Elicit Religious Beliefs in the Field
Augenblick, Ned; Cunha, Jesse M.; Bó, Ernesto Dal; … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
We model religious faith as a "demand for beliefs," following the logic of the Pascalian wager. We then demonstrate how … after May 21st. The results suggest the existence of a demand for extreme, sincere beliefs that was unresponsive to …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969243
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The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women's Work
Fernandez, Raquel; Wong, Joyce Cheng - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2011
Women born in 1935 went to college significantly less than their male counterparts and married women's labor force participation (LFP) averaged 40% between the ages of thirty and forty. The cohort born twenty years later behaved very differently. The education gender gap was eliminated and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009325524
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Does Home Owning Smooth the Variability of Future Housing Consumption?
Sinai, Todd; Paciorek, Andrew - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2010
We show that the hedging benefit of owning a home reduces the variability of housing consumption after a move. When a current home owner's house price covaries positively with housing costs in a future city, changes in the future cost of housing are offset by commensurate changes in wealth...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008727860
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The Agricultural Origins of Time Preference
Galor, Oded; Özak, Ömer - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
This research explores the origins of the distribution of time preference across regions. It advances the hypothesis, and establishes empirically, that geographical variations in natural land productivity and their impact on the return to agricultural investment have had a persistent effect on...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969388
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Pre-colonial Ethnic Institutions and Contemporary African Development
Michalopoulos, Stelios; Papaioannou, Elias - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
We investigate the role of deeply-rooted pre-colonial ethnic institutions in shaping comparative regional development within African countries. We combine information on the spatial distribution of ethnicities before colonization with regional variation in contemporary economic performance, as...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969445
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Social Norms and the Enforcement of Laws
Acemoglu, Daron; Jackson, Matthew O. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
We examine the interplay between social norms and the enforcement of laws. Agents choose a behavior (e.g., tax evasion, production of low-quality products, corruption, substance abuse, etc.) and then are randomly matched with another agent. An agent's payoff decreases with the mismatch between...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010885300
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Trust and Cheating
Giuliano, Paola; Guiso, Luigi; Butler, Jeffrey V. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
feeling cheated? Is the behavior of the driver affected by his beliefs about what we consider cheating? We address these …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950633
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Learning Capitalism the Hard Way--Evidence from Germany's Reunification
Triebs, Thomas P.; Tumlinson, Justin - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013
Communism in East Germany sought to dampen the effect of market forces on firm productivity for nearly 40 years. How did East German firms respond to the free market after being thrust into it in 1990? We use a formal learning model and German business survey data to analyze the lasting impact...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950641
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Trust, Values and False Consensus
Giuliano, Paola; Guiso, Luigi; Butler, Jeffrey - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
Trust beliefs are heterogeneous across individuals and, at the same time, persistent across generations. We investigate … individuals extrapolate from their own type when forming trust beliefs about the same pool of potential partners - i.e., more … (less) trustworthy individuals form more optimistic (pessimistic) trust beliefs - and that this tendency continues to color …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950649
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Compulsory Schooling Laws and Formation of Beliefs: Education, Religion and Superstition
Mocan, Naci H.; Pogorelova, Luiza - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
impact of schooling on superstitious beliefs. We find that more education, due to increased mandatory years of schooling …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950983