Economists and social scientists have debated the relative importance of nature (one's genes) and nurture (one's environment) for decades, if not centuries. This debate can now be informed by the ready availability of genetic data in a growing number of social science datasets. This paper...

Lab experiments have revealed that animals sometimes outperform human-beings in terms of instrumental rationality. The current essay argues that constrained maximization tendency with consistency of preferences are perhaps genetically imbibed behavior of organism, and such examples display a...

This chapter summarizes what has been learned from recent research on intergenerational transmission of earnings status. The chapter begins by using a simple theoretical model to highlight several key concepts. Then it reviews (and discusses the connections among) three related empirical...

Similar to many sub-Saharan African countries, Sudan has inherited a dual economy in the immediate post-independence era where a large agriculture-based rural traditional sector coexisted with a small non-agricultural modern sector. This functional dualism remained until the first oil shipment...

In order to credibly "sell" legitimate children to their spouse, women must forego more attractive mating opportunities. This paper derives the implications of this observation for the pattern of matching in marriage markets, the dynamics of human capital accumulation, and the evolution of the...

In order to credibly "sell" legitimate children to their spouse, women must forego more attractive mating opportunities. This paper derives the implications of this observation for the pattern of matching in marriage markets, the dynamics of human capital accumulation, and the evolution of the...

Labour market dynamics according the individual working hour tension (preferred working hours minus actual working hours) of active people with focus on the self-employed, as professions and entrepreneurs, and employees are investigated in our study. The individual longitudinal analysis based on...

We take issue with the argument expounded, among others, by Layard (2006, Economic Journal) that status-seeking preferences justify heavier taxation of income because this serves to internalise the negative externality that the pursuit of status imposes on others. In a model where status depends...

On the occasion of the one hundred years' anniversary an unsettled dispute between John Hobson and Alfred Marshall is revived. The paper argues that Marshall misunderstood Hobson, who by claiming that the choice of technique is endogenous arrives at the conclusion that marginal labor is an...