We find differential rates of cohabitation with adult relatives as well as differential impacts of that cohabitation on the probability of employment for married female immigrants across regions of origin. This suggests that traditions and/or cultural determinants of family structure influence...

The traditional historical narrative claims that White women were rarely involved in market transactions for enslaved people in the antebellum United States. Using transaction records, notary statements, and runaway advertisements, we provide the first quantitative estimates of the extent of...

We study differences in economic outcomes by perceived skin tone among African Americans using full-count U.S. decennial census data from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Comparing children coded as "Black" or "Mulatto" by census enumerators and linking these children across population...

Recent studies based on 20th century US data conclude that abortion access raises children's average socioeconomic outcomes. We generalize a model of fertility, highlighting assumptions under which these abortion predictions can be reversed. Using 19th century abortion restrictions, we...

We hypothesize that the impact of antibiotics is moderated by a population's inherent (genetic) resistance to infectious disease. Using the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937, we show that US states that are more genetically susceptible to infectious disease saw larger declines in their...

Economics has long studied how consumers respond to the disclosure of information about firms. We study a case in which the disclosed information is unrelated to the product or firm leadership, but which could still potentially affect consumer patronage through the mechanism of repugnance, as...

Several strands of research document the life-cycle impacts of lead exposure during the critical period of children's development. Yet little is known about long-run effects of lead exposure during early-life on old-age mortality outcomes. This study exploits the staggered installation of water...

How do different income taxation systems affect household decisions and welfare? We answer this question by first documenting the strong labor supply disincentives for secondary earners of the U.S. tax system and by using variations from the Bush Tax Cuts to assess their effects on...

Synthetic microdata - data retaining the structure of original microdata while replacing original values with modeled values for the sake of privacy - presents an opportunity to increase access to useful microdata for data users while meeting the privacy and confidentiality requirements for data...

Using the NLSY, we find that young Mexican women earn 9% less than young White women while young Black women earn 15% less than young White women. Although young Mexican women earn less than young White women, they do surprisingly well compared to young Black women. We show that it is crucially...