The response of vital rates to harvest fluctuations in pre-industrial Sweden

This study examines whether there was a Malthusian equilibrium mechanism in Sweden in the pre-industrial period. A unique data set on harvests, deaths, marriages and births going back to 1630 is used to calculate cumulative elasticities of vital rates with respect to harvest. While earlier studies have mostly focused on the impact of real wage, this study uses the calorie content of per capita harvests as an indicator of living standards. It finds that there indeed was a response of vital rates to harvest fluctuations, but there were important structural breaks. While positive checks attenuated after 1720, preventive checks were strengthened. After 1870 preventive checks disappeared, and possibly also positive checks. The results are robust to different models and trend specifications, with one crucial difference: while the distributed lag model shows that positive checks were significant up to 1920, the SVAR model shows that positive checks disappeared after 1870.     

Differences in white-non-white returns to schooling: Theory and policy

Summary and conclusions In this paper, we reviewed and evaluated the empirical literature on differences in white-non-white returns to schooling during the pre- and post-Civil Rights Act of 1964 periods. The most striking results, using the 1960 census data, are that returns to education for Blacks are low. Equally interesting are the results using 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity data; these show that Blacks have gained considerably relative to whites in returns to education. A logical explanation of these differences was the impact of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.     

The Demand for Healthcare Regulation: The Effect of Political Spending on Occupational Licensing Laws

Using data on political spending in state elections, this study considers the role of political contributions by healthcare professional interest groups in states' decisions to enact occupational licensing laws. These laws govern how different professions may operate in healthcare markets, and while they ostensibly exist to protect consumers, licensing laws can also insulate professionals from competition in healthcare markets. Higher political spending by physician interest groups increases the probability that a state maintains licensing laws restricting the practices of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). Conversely, increased spending by hospital interest groups increases the probability that a state allows NPs and PAs to practice with more autonomy. Nurse groups, which include groups affiliated with NPs, have a smaller effect on licensing laws. And nonphysician groups, which include groups affiliated with PAs, have almost no effect on licensing laws. These results are consistent with the investment theory of political spending.     

On the intergenerational transmission of preferences

Recent contributions in economics have argued for a re-introduction of preference-based approaches to economic behavior and have called for an empirical investigation of preferences in order to overcome the prevalent skepticism against such explanations within the discipline. The present paper contributes to this discussion by assessing the extent, specificity, and malleability of preference transmission from parents to their children, and thus provides evidence for the clustering of preferences along family lines. Using data on eight activity choices from the British Household Panel Survey, we find strong (and positive) correlations between preferences of parents and their adult children. These correlations are found to be robust to a wide number of robustness checks but to vary considerably across activities, suggesting that parents may have more influence over some preferences than over others. Further investigations also show that this influence is surprisingly robust to a wide number of potentially intervening factors.     

Gender and entrepreneurial success: evidence from survey data

A wealth of studies have contributed to the literature on gender differences in entrepreneurial success, but most lack key controls that aid in determining that success. Scale of the entrepreneur’s business is often not accounted for, and no studies to the author’s knowledge approach the gender comparison by specifically utilizing a sample of entrepreneur-only managed businesses. This allows for a direct comparison between individual entrepreneurs’ performance by gender, without the confounding heterogeneity that workforces may introduce. Data are taken from a national US survey of individuals, and model specifications include a number of important but oftentimes unavailable controls that have never before been used in conjunction. Female and male entrepreneurial success are statistically equal after controlling for risk preferences, intelligence, start-up capital, prior industry experience and hours worked at the business. Alternative specifications and sensitivity checks confirm and expand on these results.     

Does nonagricultural labor relax farmers’ credit constraints? Evidence from longitudinal data for Vietnam

We examine the relationship between participation in nonagricultural labor activities and farming production decisions, focusing on the use of inputs. Using longitudinal data for Vietnam from 1993 to 1998, we find that households engaged in nonagricultural labor spend significantly more on seeds, services, hired labor, and livestock inputs. This is consistent with the hypothesis that nonagricultural labor income relaxes credit constraints to farming.     

Stuck in the middle: Impacts of grade configuration in public schools

We examine the implications of separating students of different grade levels across schools for the purposes of educational production. Specifically, we find that moving students from elementary to middle school in 6th or 7th grade causes significant drops in academic achievement. These effects are large (about 0.15 standard deviations), present for both math and English, and persist through grade 8, the last year for which we have achievement data. The effects are similar for boys and girls, but stronger for students with low levels of initial achievement. We instrument for middle school attendance using the grade range of the school students attended in grade 3, and employ specifications that control for student fixed effects. This leaves only one potential source of bias–correlation between grade range of a student's grade 3 school and unobservable characteristics that cause decreases in achievement precisely when students are due to switch schools–which we view as highly unlikely. We find little evidence that placing public school students into middle schools during adolescence is cost-effective.     

Royal finance under King Henry III, 1216–72: the wardrobe evidence1

Existing studies have shown how the royal wardrobe, the king's personal administrative office, regularly handled between a quarter and a half of the Crown's annual cash income. Despite this, the financial contribution of the wardrobe to royal finance under Henry III is not fully understood. For a reign in which debates about royal fiscal strategies are so notable a feature, this represents a significant gap. This article will supplement existing studies of wardrobe finance under Henry III by collectively analysing all 15 of the king's wardrobe accounts that are enrolled on the exchequer pipe rolls. The article makes two important findings. Firstly, the wardrobe was financially strong when the period of baronial reform began in 1258. Secondly, the wardrobe's financial strength was the result of a new, and deliberate, approach to acquiring revenue beyond the treasury that targeted sources of income that could generate cash quickly. During Henry's final years, this included greater reliance on credit. These findings suggest Henry III was not incapable of making adroit financial decisions. They also reveal that the foundations for the financial system developed by the three Edwards, which was more reliant on credit and sources of ready cash, were laid under Henry III.