We study the historical origins of cross-country differences in the male-to-female sex ratio. Our analysis focuses on the use of the plough in traditional agriculture. In societies that did not use the plough, women tended to participate in agriculture as actively as men. By contrast, in...

One approach to analyzing inequality is to compare average economic choices from a classical theoretical framework. Another approach considers the impact of the formation of society, through statutes and institutions, on average economic outcomes. This paper studies the effects of slavery on...

We study the historical origins of cross-country differences in the male-to-female sex ratio. Our analysis focuses on the use of the plough in traditional agriculture. In societies that did not use the plough, women tended to participate in agriculture as actively as men. By contrast, in...

We investigate the impacts infrastructure investment has on the historical persistence of mistrustwithin Africa. We combine geocoded Afrobarometer survey data with infrastructure projectsfinanced by the Chinese government and its agencies. We show that these projects' presence doesnot diminish...

American Indian communities are the poorest in the United States. They suffer from poverty, unemployment, and inadequate housing rates not seen elsewhere in the U.S. Yet any discussion of economic development in Indian Country is always conditioned and constrained by concerns about possible...

We study the historical origins of cross-country differences in the male-to-female sex ratio. Our analysis focuses on the use of the plough in traditional agriculture. In societies that did not use the plough, women tended to participate in agriculture as actively as men. By contrast, in...

In his elegant book Douglas Allen claims that an improvement in the measurement of Nature made for lower transaction costs and the Industrial Revolution. His argument is a typical example of neo-institutionalism in the style of Douglass North (<CitationRef CitationID="CR14">1990</CitationRef>) and North et al. (<CitationRef CitationID="CR16">2009</CitationRef>). A fall in a wedge of...</citationref></citationref>

Aggregate art price patterns mask a lot of underlying variation--both in the time series and in the cross- section. We argue that, to increase our understanding of the market for aesthetics, it is helpful to take a micro perspective on the formation of art prices, and acknowledge that each...

Across Europe and the Americas, the Enlightenment brought intellectual and institutional tumult over that most basic attribute of the political economy – its medium. By the time the age was over, money operated according to a new design. It enabled a set of financial practices that were...