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Does Democracy Make Us Richer and Better Educated? Or Is It the Other Way...
It’s one of the ultimate chicken or egg questions: Does democracy lead to increases in education and income, or do education and higher income lead to democracy? It’s a tricky one, considering that...
View ArticleDaron Acemoglu on Inequality
If you’re even a little bit interested in income inequality and how it matters, this Browser interview with MIT economist Daron Acemoglu is a must-read. Acemoglu explains how economists generally think...
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Is Income Inequality Rising, and Are a Lot of Feathers Heavy?
New data on income inequality in the United States were just released. And they provide a useful teaching moment. The graph below, which comes from the Census Bureau, shows the evolution of the Gini...
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How to Live Longer: a New Marketplace Podcast
(Photo: Ethan Prater) Our latest Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace podcast is called “How to Live Longer.” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen via the media player above,...
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A Carpenter No More
(Photo: Dylan Foley) A 50-year-old law professor told me yesterday that between college and law school he worked as a carpenter. I said it was great to hear that, as it must make him more productive...
View ArticleWhen a Wife Earns More
A new working paper (abstract; PDF) by Marianne Bertrand, Jessica Pan, and Emir Kamenica looks at gender identity and its effect on household income. Their findings will depress anyone concerned with...
View ArticleWhat Happens When You Teach Parents to Parent?
A new working paper (abstract; PDF) by Paul Gertler, James Heckman, and several other co-authors examines the impressive long-term effects of a Jamaican program that taught low-income parents better...
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For N.B.A. Hopefuls, Zip Code Matters
(Photo: Keith Allison) We’ve blogged before about the (relatively small) effect of birth month on athletic excellence. But how does birth location affect a potential athlete? In The New York Times,...
View ArticleWhy Broadway Performers Are Paid More
A recent New York Times article discussed a meeting being held to protest a “tiered wage” that averages $1,000 per week for performers in touring productions of Broadway musicals — compared to a “full...
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What's the Median Income for a Fashion Model in the U.S.?
(iStockphoto) Take a wild guess: How much do you think fashion models make? It’s one of those professions that unless you know someone, or work in the biz, there’s not a lot of information out there to...
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The Economic Benefits of Trust
Trust is essential to economic growth. (iStockphoto) On the airport bus in Helsinki, a Finnish woman asked my wife, “What is the biggest difference between Europe and the U.S.?” There are lots of...
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We're Halfway to a Lost Decade
Our current slump began a lot earlier than you think. Which means that we’re half way to a lost decade. Many people date the financial crisis as beginning when Lehman collapsed in September 2008. But...
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The Rich vs Poor Debate: Are Kids Normal or Inferior Goods?
Photo: Leszek.Leszczynski Are you likely to have more kids if you are rich or poor? Or to put this in econo-jargon: Are kids normal or inferior goods? (Reminder: When you get rich you buy more of a...
View ArticleFREAK-est Links
Using science for art, and art for science. How much does it cost to go to Hogwarts? Stephen Hawking: If we can colonize space within 200 years, humans will survive. World map: 7 billion people and...
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Income Equality in Revolutionary America
Photo: Peter Roan A tad late for Independence Day, but interesting nevertheless: a new paper called “American Incomes Before and After the Revolution,” by Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson....
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Did Women's Lib Movement Increase Income Gap in the U.S.?
(iStockphoto) Reader Chris Fawcett writes in with an intriguing question: How did the women’s liberation movement affect the income gap in the U.S.? Income inequality has been on the rise in the U.S....
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Cohabitation in the U.S. has Doubled Since the Mid-1990s
(iStockphoto) A recent study by the Pew Research Center titled “Living Together: The Economics of Cohabitation,” finds that rates of cohabitation in the U.S. have gone up significantly over the last 15...
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Nice Guys Never Win (Neither Do Mean Girls)
(iStockphoto) For years, we’ve been hearing from fictional alpha males like Ari Gold and Gordon Gekko that nice guys finish last. Now, according to a collection of studies soon to be released in the...
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What's the Best Way to Measure Poverty: Income or Consumption?
Creatas Yesterday we learned that 15.1% of Americans were living in poverty in 2010, the highest level since 1993, and up nearly 1 percentage point from 2009, when it was 14.3%. That data is based on...
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Enlisting in the Military Increases Earnings, But Only If You Stick Around
A new RAND research report prepared for the U.S. Army explores the effect of military enlistment on individual earnings and the labor market. The authors used data from applicants to “active-component...
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