This paper uses data from California in 1860, a period in which property rights were uncertain, to investigate the relationship between the certainty of property rights and agricultural production. The negative effect of uncertain property rights on farm values, crop production, and wheat...

Though scholars have found that modern justices are frequently motivated to step down by political circumstances, we believe that their long-departed predecessors rarely had such a luxury. Specifically, we suggest that the focus on political factors often present in this literature is...

By using a new source of 19th century Texas state prison records, the present study contrasts the biological living conditions of comparable blacks and whites in the American South between the Civil War and Reconstruction. White stature exceeded black stature. Between 1850 and 1870, black...

The fundamental problem in the field of the economics of innovation is how countries achieve and sustain technological and economic advantage. This study confronts the problem here by developing a theoretical framework based on the concept of purposeful system having a purpose of global...

When traditional measures for material and economic welfare are scarce or unreliable, height and the body mass index (BMI) are now widely accepted measures that represent cumulative and current net nutrition in development studies. However, as the ratio of weight to height, BMI does not fully...

This short essay reviews Thomas Leonard's extraordinary book, Illiberal Reformers (Princeton UP, 2016) and at the same time critically discusses the review of the same book recently published in the Journal of Economic Literature. It is argued that the JEL reviewers have grossly misinterpreted...

The introduction of immigration quotas in the 1920s fundamentally changed U.S. immigration policy. We exploit this policy change to estimate the economic consequences of immigration restrictions for the U.S. economy. The implementation of the quota system led to a long-lasting relative decline...

The introduction of immigration quotas in the 1920s fundamentally changed U.S. immigration policy. We exploit this policy change to estimate the economic consequences of immigration restrictions for the U.S. economy. The implementation of the quota system led to a long-lasting relative decline...

The key to the development of manufacturing in antebellum Massachusetts is to be found not in newly available technological or organizational blueprints in the manufacturing sector, not in changes in tariff policies, and not in demand shifts (although all of these many have contributed to some...

Early American firms ranging from farms to factories compared the relative advantages and disadvantages of each of the major types of laborer - family, wage, indentured, and slave - available to them. Major variables of comparison included the total productivity, liquidity or availability, cost...