~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (57)

Greg Clark may well be the most important social scientist of the 21st century. His use of historical data informed by evolutionary theory and genetics is a unique contribution to social science with important and challenging results. Clark’s latest paper (with Neil Cummins) makes a simple but striking point. If the primary systematic determinant of […] The post Matriline versus Patriline: Social Mobility in...

No, but they did get him some votes there: We study the economic and political consequences of the 2018-2019 trade war between the United States, China and other US trade partners at the detailed geographic level, exploiting measures of local exposure to US import tariffs, foreign retaliatory tariffs, and US compensation programs. The trade-war has […] The post Did the Trump tariffs help the...

Since the mapping of the human genome in 2004, biologists have demonstrated genetic links to the expression of several income-enhancing physical traits. To illustrate how heredity produces intergenerational economic effects, this study uses one trait, beauty, to infer the extent to which parents’ physical characteristics transmit inequality across generations. Analyses of a large-scale longitudinal dataset […] The post Hot parents, richer kids? appeared first...

“I suggest, Men and women tend to think alike in societies where there is Close-knit interdependence, religosity and authoritarianism, or Shared cultural production and mixed gendered offline socialising. Gendered ideological polarisation appears encouraged by: Feminised public culture Economic resentment Social media filter bubbles Cultural entrepreneurs.” Here is the full piece, currently the best piece on […] The post Alice Evans on the ideological gender...

Published in the journal Conflict and Health last April, the report suggests that the world’s deadliest humanitarian crisis in 2022 was not in Afghanistan, Ukraine, or other places featured regularly in the news — but in CAR. The Central African Republic has neither reliable birth and death registries nor regular censuses. To figure out how […] The post Central African Republic estimate of the...

Map of the TFRs by US state for 2023, based on recently released birth data from January-September 2023. The TFR declined to around 1.62 kids per woman last year, but there are important regional differences. Values range from 1.99 in South Dakota to 1.19 in Washington DC. pic.twitter.com/xXXzKm1kT6 — Birth Gauge (@BirthGauge) January 22, 2024 […] The post South Dakota is trying to hold...

I won’t double indent, but this is not by me, though I agree with it: “I agree with your read re Argentina’s history of fiscal stability. From this paper (unclear if the data is accurate), here is Argentina’s deficit from 1960 to 2016 or so: [See Figure 3 here] Notice 2003-2009 is the only time […] The post Quick tour of Argentina’s fiscal deficit...

Barro, CPI rate correlation with covid spending in 37 countries pic.twitter.com/AD47gPTbYb — 161phi (@161phi) January 21, 2024 A year or so ago I recall telling Bari Weiss in a podcast that the inflation was perhaps half real shocks, half an aggregate demand problem.  Don’t let the revisionists talk you into the hardcore RBC view! The post No, Covid spending wasn’t the only factor, but…...

Here is one interesting hypothesis: Despite the persistence of anti-Black racism, White Americans report feeling worse off than Black Americans. We suggest that some White Americans may report low well-being despite high group-level status because of perceptions that they are falling behind their in-group. Using census-based quota sampling, we measured status comparisons and health among […] The post Who feels the pinch of status...