We argue that the waning of nepotism in academia bolstered scientific production in pre-industrial Europe. We build a database of families of scholars (1088–1800), measure their scientific output, and develop a general method to disentangle nepotism from inherited human capital—two...

This paper exploits conditional random assignment of patients to general practitioners to calculate a leniency measure of paid sick leave certification. We link these data to information on the human capital development of the patients’ children. We find sizable negative effects of parental...

The large number of overweight children in the U.S. has led school administrators and researchers to examine how aspects of the school environment affect children's dietary behavior and health. In addition to consuming nutrient rich food and exercising regularly, nutritionists have suggested...