A new sample containing rental price and characteristic data for over 15,000 New York City units was collected from historical newspapers for the period 1880 to 1910. These units were geolocated to the historical map of Manhattan Island to explore their geographic coverage, using Geographic...

Have Irish, German or Italian settlers arriving in the US at the turn of the 20th century left an institutional trace which determines economic development differences to this day? Does the national origin of migrants matter for long-term development? This paper explores whether the distinct...

We investigate the role of industrial structure in labor productivity growth in U.S. cities between 1880 and 1930 using a new dataset constructed from the Census of Manufactures. We find that increases in specialization were associated with faster productivity growth but that diversity only had...

In this paper, I study long-run population changes across U.S. metropolitan areas. First, I argue that changes over a long period of time in the geographic distribution of population can be informative about the so-called "resilience" of regions. Using the censuses of population from 1790 to...

This paper explores the early development of three important fiscal institutions faced by U.S. state governments: property tax limits (PTLs), balanced budget rules (BBRs), and the gubernatorial line-item veto (LIV). Specifically, this study attempts to provide historical context for their...

This Article uncovers a lost history of property, showing the role that race and white supremacy played in the development of modern trespass law. Property law does not change in response to economic opportunities, evolving to ever-more efficiency. Instead, property law reflects political power....

The poll tax is best known as a tool of disenfranchisement. Before Jim Crow, however, the poll tax served a variety of other fiscal and social purposes. Initially, the poll tax was a mainstay of colonial taxation, especially in the southern colonies. After independence, the fiscal importance of...

Since the 1970s, covenants running with the land have tethered a large majority of the new housing units produced in the United States. These private restraints usually continue for generations, until a majority or super-majority of covenant beneficiaries affirmatively vote to amend or terminate...

How do social interactions shape collective action, and how are they mediated by networkedinformation technologies? We answer these questions studying the Temperance Crusade, a wave of anti-liquor protest activity spreading across 29 states between 1873-1874. Relying on exogenous variation in...