DRAFT (PDF) During the 1960s and 1970s, states across the US repealed laws that imposed limits on how many hours women could work in certain industries. We find that the repeal of these laws led to similar labor market effects for both men and women. In particular, the average workweek increases in length and fewer people left the previously affected industries. In addition, both hourly and annual earnings fell. The effects for women are consistent with a model in which male and female labor are complements in production and removing a workweek limit expands the supply of female labor. However, to explain the effects for men, it must be that repealing the female specific workweek limit also expanded the supply of male labor.

DRAFT (PDF) We present a Non-Linear Instrumental Variable (NLIV) structure for the analysis of intergenerational mobility consistent with the realities of mating and reproduction. Existing models of the transmission of (dis)advantage are special cases of this framework embodying specific assumptions, many of them testable. In analyses of intergenerational mobility in the U.S. 1870-1979 and Spain 1700-1800, mothers contributed more than fathers to outcomes children’s in the former setting, but the reverse was true in the latter. We further show how consideration of assortative mating and the impact of mothers can produce novel conclusions regarding mobility levels, trends over time, and mechanisms.

DRAFT (PDF) During World War II, the United States federal government instituted an explicit policy of wage controls through the National War Labor Board. These wage controls, which differed by industry, occupation, and geographic region, specified maximum allowable raises for those earning less than a certain level (the so-called "bracket") and froze wages greater than that level. We find that higher brackets were associated with relative decreases in inequality as measured by the change in the log(Q10/Q90) and log(Q25/Q75) ratios between 1939 and 1959 as well as 1969. There are no effects detectable from 1979 onward.

(with Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Can the Great Compression be Explained by Wartime Wage Controls?

(with Erik Loualiche and Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Firm Networks in the Great Depression

(with Price Fishback and Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Labor Market Effects of Workweek Restrictions: Evidence from the Great Depression

(with Felipe Benguria and Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Labor Earnings Inequality in Manufacturing During the Great Depression

(with Nicolas L. Ziebarth) The Census of Manufactures: An Overview

(with Emek Basker and Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Competition, Productivity, and Survival of Grocery Stores in the Great Depression

(with Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Did the National Recovery Administration Foster Collusion? Evidence from the Macaroni Industry

(with Mark Chicu and Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Cementing the Case for Collusion under the National Recovery Administration

Socioeconomic Status and Judicial Disparities in England and Wales, 1870-1910

(with Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Economic Development and the Demographics of Criminals in Victorian England

(with José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez and Salvador Gil-Guirado) La “Doña” è Mobile: the Role of Women in Social Mobility in a Pre-modern Economy

(with José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez, Salvador Gil-Guirado, and W. Daniel Giraldo-Paez) Labor income inequality in pre-industrial Mediterranean Spain: The city of Murcia in the 18th century

(with Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Lessons for Today from Past Periods of Rapid Technological Change

(with Joel Mokyr and Nicolas L. Ziebarth) Technological Anxiety and the Future of Economic Growth: Is this Time Different?

(with T. Randolph Beard and Jeffrey Macher) This Time is Different (?): Telecommunications Unbundling and Lessons for Railroad Regulation