In counties where slavery had been more prevalent, African Americans accumulated human capital more slowly after the Civil War. However, the shadow of slavery emerged after Reconstruction. This study suggests a mechanism by which the historical prevalence of slavery led to selective application...

Modern labor studies consider the relationship between wages and biological markers. A relevant historical question is the relationship between occupational status and biological markers. This study demonstrates that 19th century stature and BMIs were significant in Texas occupation selection;...

Does the lack of wealth constrain parents' investments in the human capital of their descendants? We conduct a fifty-year followup of an episode in which such constraints would have been plausibly relaxed by a random allocation of wealth to families. We track descendants of those eligible to win...

This paper considers the extent to which crime in early America was conditioned on height. With data on inmates incarcerated in Pennsylvania state penitentiaries between 1826 and 1876, we estimate the parameters of Wiebull proportional hazard specifications of the individual crime hazard. Our...

The impact of industrialization on an economy's overall demands for skill cannot be deduced on purely a priori grounds, but depends, rather, on such variables as the character of the agricultural sector at the onset of industrialization,the particular industries in which manufacturing employment...

This paper analyzes the causal relationship between parental death during childhood and long-run labor market outcomes by examining the 1853 New Orleans yellow fever epidemic as a natural experiment. In 1853, nearly 8,000 New Orleanians died of yellow fever, leaving many broken families and...

This paper examines whether increased market access driven by railroad network expansions had long-run effects on those living in affected areas during their early life. I make use of linked complete count U.S. Censuses to follow individuals who were children in 1900 and trace through short-run...

This paper considers the extent to which crime in the 19th century was conditioned on body weight. With data on inmates incarcerated in the Tennessee and Illinois state penitentiaries between 1831 and 1892, we estimate the parameters of Wiebull proportional hazard specifications of the...

Modern labor studies consider the relationship between wages and biological markers. A relevant historical question is the relationship between occupational status and biological markers. This study demonstrates that 19th century stature and BMIs were significant in Texas occupation selection;...

Formal schooling has a significant impact on modern agricultural productivity but there is little evidence quantifying the historical importance of schools in the early development of the American agricultural sector. I present new data from the Midwest at the start of the twentieth century...