The gravity model has provided a tractable empirical framework to account for bilateral flows not only of manufactured goods, as in the case of merchandise trade, but also of financial flows. In particular, recent literature has emphasized the role of information costs in preventing larger...

Societies socialize children about many things, including sex. Socialization is costly. It uses scarce resources, such as time and effort. Parents weigh the marginal gains from socialization against its costs. Those at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale indoctrinate their daughters less...

The demographic transition the move from a high fertility/high mortality regime into a low fertility/low mortality regime is one of the most fundamental transformations that countries undertake. To study demographic transitions across time and space, we compile a data set of birth and death...