A collection of eighteen articles have been purposely chosen to demonstrate the development of the original and significant contributions of my research over the period 1990 to 2008. Despite the relatively large number of articles, which cover a range of related issues, there is a surprisingly...

Despite some disagreements about specific timing, it is now widely accepted that France was the first European country to experience a systematic decline in fertility, a decline that took place in a very distinctive geographical pattern.  Whereas two areas of low birth rates (the Seine valley...

For centuries, economists have struggled to explain why people and businesses gather in cities.

This article reviews beer production, consumption and the industrial organization of breweries throughout history. Monasteries were the centers of the beer economy in the early Middle Ages. Innovation and increased demand later induced the growth of commercial breweries. Globalization and...

The annual report essay discusses the measurement system used to track U.S. economic activity, and why it is not yet up to the task of effectively measuring aspects of economic activity that contribute the most to long-term economic growth. For historical reasons, our measuring system has...

The spectacularly early decline of French fertility is one of the great puzzles of economic history. There are no convincing explanations for why France entered a fertility transition over a century before anywhere else in the world. This analysis links highly detailed individual level fertility...