🚨 I am excited to share my Job Market Paper.
"Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery" (w/
@ReichardtHugo
)
We provide new evidence that a Black family's socioeconomic status today strongly depends on their historical exposure to racially oppressive institutions.
Black families who were enslaved until the Civil War have considerably lower education, income, and wealth than Black families freed before the Civil War (in 1940 & even today).
The "Free-Enslaved" gaps in these outcomes equal 40% of the corresponding Black-white gaps.
I am excited to host a session on "Systemic Discrimination" with the amazing
@MaggieECJones
&
@mellosteve2
. Please be part of the friendly applied micro takeover of the SED by sending in your paper by Feb 15.
In sum, systemic discrimination—the higher exposure to ongoing discrimination 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯—is the driving force that has perpetuated slavery‘s legacy.
Why has the Free-Enslaved gap been so persistent?
We find a key factor is the difference in location between enslaved & free Black Americans by the end of slavery.
Looking forward to sharing my JMP at the
@nberpubs
Economics of Mobility meeting this Friday (Dec 2).
📢 Amazing program incl. keynote by Stefanie Stantcheva.
📺 All live-streamed on NBER YouTube:
🚨 I am excited to share my Job Market Paper.
"Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery" (w/
@ReichardtHugo
)
We provide new evidence that a Black family's socioeconomic status today strongly depends on their historical exposure to racially oppressive institutions.
🙏🏻 I'm greatly indebted to my advisors
@leah_boustan
,
@EDerenoncourt
, and
@ReddingEcon
; many other people who have generously offered their comments and suggestions; and the
@PrincetonEcon
Program for Research on Inequality for its generous support.
After slavery, the states in the Deep South adopted the strictest Jim Crow regimes. Those regimes were targeted at limiting Black economic progress through racial segregation, Black voter disenfranchisement, and restrictions to Black geographic mobility.
We assess the likely force behind the importance of states—namely, their Jim Crow regimes.
We measure a Jim Crow regime's intensity via
1. Our new database on 800 Jim Crow laws
2.
@ReginaSBaker
's index of states' historical racial regimes
3. Measures of Black school quality
Jim Crow single-handedly shaped the geography of Black economic progress after slavery: the full gap in Black economic progress across neighboring states arose sharply at their border.
The key force behind the Deep South‘s negative effect is thus the institution of Jim Crow.
To identify the effect of Jim Crow, we compare the economic progress of families freed across state borders with more/less strict Jim Crow regimes.
Starting w/ Jim Crow, Black (but not white) families' outcomes diverged.
Enslaved families' geographic distribution by the end of slavery fully explains the Free-Enslaved gap’s persistence after 1940.
What made states such a critical determinant of Black economic progress after slavery?
We show that providing school access to children in the Jim Crow South closed 80% of the education gap caused by strict Jim Crow regimes.
The positive effects of school access in the 1920s on the human capital of Black families persist today.
Excited to present my job market paper "Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery" (joint with Hugo Reichardt) next Friday at
@CIDR_NYC
(+Zoom).
Very excited to attend and share my new work on how the G.I. Bill — a policy that is often credited for massively expanding the American middle class — affected the racial wealth gap (with Christiane Szerman).
We had a fantastic couple of days at the 2nd CESifo/ifo Junior Workshop on Economics of Education!🥳
Thanks everyone for making this such a terrific event!🫂
Congratulations to
@tsaocaro
(
@PrincetonEcon
) for winning the best paper award!
Travel well!
I have gotten to know Olaf as an extremely talented and driven student. He will be an excellent research assistant to anyone looking for strong coding & data analysis skills and an enthusiasm for research in economics.
🚨 I am excited to share my JMP!
"Scale-Biased Technical Change and Inequality"
I propose a new theory on why some technologies increase inequality, while others reduce it. I provide causal evidence from the adoption of steam engines and electric motors to support the theory.
Hey
#econtwitter
We are back with Season 5 of AYEW! We have an amazing schedule w/ 23 presentations and 5 workshops. Thank you everyone for your submissions!!
First webinar: 7 September 2022
For more details:
@EconZach
@lukestein
@ipums
That’s so kind. As you’ll see, your work has been an inspiration — should you have any thoughts, I’d be especially keen to hear what you think.
@jeffrlin
Only visited once this summer, but I recommend renting a bike and just cycling (or walking if you prefer) around to absorb all the beautiful architecture and all the green.
@ProfALucas
I assume that it’s mainly a piece of info some people are looking for on a CV, so it’s good to make it very easy to find for those who are hoping to contact your references?
@lavaredmonds
I find it helpful to have little reading groups with one or two graduate students to discuss one paper a month or so. Talking about possible improvements/extensions can generate research projects and also shows you whether you and your potential coauthor speak the same language.
@M0nkeybus1nesss
Thanks for asking!
This conclusion builds on the finding that the Free-Enslaved gap has only persisted due to enslaved families' location by the end of slavery. Their location was a direct consequence of slavery, exposing them to more severe oppression under Jim Crow.
@M0nkeybus1nesss
Another essential question (long answer in the paper)! We show that the state where a family was enslaved was vital for their long-term economic progress. We argue that a family's enslavement state was unrelated to their descendants' "ability," especially in border regions.
@ProfALucas
Good to know. I think JMC are told to make the contact info of their references easily accessible, so I suspect it's at least part of why many put it high up on the CV.
@elonmusk
I closely follow the protocol by
@hubermanlab
to optimize sleep
1. Get into sun light soon after waking up
2. Cold shower in the morning
3. Don’t drink coffee after 4pm
4. Avoid bright light after 10pm
5. Go to sleep and wake up at similar times
…
For those far away from home: This website has videos that let you drive around various cities around the globe and play local radio stations along with it. ☕️🏙️
@driveandlisten
@impoliticaljnky
@jasonfurman
Great question which we discuss at length in the paper. In short: based on historical evidence and our new quantitative evidence, it is highly unlikely that the Free-Enslaved gap’s long-run persistence is affected by selection.
@_alice_evans
To my knowledge, measuring the geography of contact with the criminal justice system (arrests, convictions, etc.) at the national level is challenging.
This team has made huge data improvements (but still covers only some states):
@_alice_evans
I believe many would agree that the massive increase in incarceration of (Black) men is a continuation of institutionalized oppression (see also "Slavery by Another Name" and "The New Jim Crow")
@postdiscipline
Thanks for sharing. Relatedly, our evidence suggests that Black families’ economic status was gradually compressed to similar levels by Southern Jim Crow regimes, irrespective of past enslavement status. It is possible that a similar dynamic played out in the North.
„The simplest advice for individuals seems to be this: Whatever you have in your house now—be it a pile of cotton totes, or a jumble of plastic bags—don’t throw them out. Keep using them until they fall apart.“