We study how inheriting parents’ credit histories affects credit scores, access to credit, and subsequent experiences of young indi- viduals entering the credit market. First, having an inherited credit history significantly positively affects credit scores at entry. Second, initial credit...

Black agricultural land ownership was at a peak just after the turn of the twentieth century; however, there was a nearly 90 percent decline in ownership from 1910 to 1997 (US Department of Agriculture (USDA) 1840–2012). In this paper, we use US Census of Agriculture (COA) data to estimate...

Using hand-collected race information of small business owners that concealed their race in Paycheck Protection Program applications, we find evidence that not disclosing race information in loan applications pays off significantly. Our results show that black-owned businesses that concealed...

We complement the literature on common ownership by presenting two new observations from entrepreneurial startups. First, given the increase in common ownership of startups by VC investors, inclusion of high-value startups in standard common ownership measures may actually increase aggregate...

A puzzling development over the past 15 years is decline in Total Factor Productivity in many advanced economies. Part of this decline may be due to the rapid growth of free digital goods. Statistical agencies have no reliable way to measure the benefits of the introduction of free goods. This...

This research establishes the influence of linguistic traits on human behavior. Exploiting variations in the languages spoken by children of migrants with identical ancestral countries of origin, the analysis indicates that the presence of periphrastic future tense, and its association with...

We study the impact of student debt on various labor market outcomes, namely, labor market income, hourly wages, hours worked, and probability of full-time employment. Using data from the NLSY97 surveys and a difference-in-difference approach, we find statistically significant differences in...

We estimate the increasing health care needs of American inmates by combining data on inmate demographics and national health trends. Decades of harsh punishment combined with demographic shifts have led to a “greying” prison population that is a source of concern for policymakers. Our...

We use a choice experiment to examine public support for minimum wages. We first elicit respondents' moral assessment of two labor market systems: one with a minimum wage and one without. Then, we present four pairs of hypothetical employment outcomes and ask respondents to "vote." Our estimates...