This paper presents an analysis of the interaction of human capital investment and the development of social and political institutions. We find that human capital mattersmdash;for growth through its quality dimension; for distributional conflict by raising political aspirations. But human...

Failure in US high school courses is common, but little is known about its effects. This paper investigates the extent to which course repeaters in high school mathematics courses exert negative externalities on their course-mates. Using individual and school-specific course fixed effects to...