Scarring and Selection in the Great Irish Famine
31/03/2025
Summary: We study the health impact of the Great Irish Famine by comparing cohorts born during the Famine with those born immediately before and immediately
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Summary: We study the health impact of the Great Irish Famine by comparing cohorts born during the Famine with those born immediately before and immediately
Abstract: The quality of age reporting in Ireland worsened in the years after the 1845–1852 Great Irish Famine, even as measures of educational attainment improved.
Abstract: Lasting changes in women’s employment followed the 1918 influenza pandemic in the United States. In the decades before the pandemic, consistently fewer women reported
Abstract: A large literature argues that resource constraints inhibit human capital accumulation. We test this hypothesis using the introduction of the Old Age Pension in
Abstract: Attempts to measure social mobility before the twentieth century are frequently hampered by limited data. In this paper, we use a new source –
Abstract: Why do we choose one language over another? Rival views see language frontiers as exogenous, driven by policy, or endogenous, determined by social, cultural
Abstract: This paper argues that in all societies there is considerable agreement about what goods and services are needed to provide a decent living, and
Abstract: Economists ignore caring labor since most is provided unpaid. Disregard is unjust, theoretically indefensible, and probably misleading. Valuation requires estimates of time spent and
Abstract: What are the insights from historical pandemics for policymaking today? We carry out a systematic review of the literature on the impact of pandemics
Abstract: Fears of immigrants as a threat to public health have a long and sordid history. At the turn of the 20th century, when immigrants
Abstract: In the 1920s, the United States substantially reduced immigration by imposing country-specific entry quotas. We compare local labor markets differentially exposed to the quotas
Abstract: This article explores the effects of gender inequality and women’s disempowerment in the context of historical coalmining. Across the United States and Europe, ex-coalmining
Abstract: The quality of age reporting in Ireland worsened in the years after the Great Irish Famine (1845–1852), even as other measures of educational attainment
Abstract: This paper analyzes the triggers of rebellion and documents the historical roots of conflict using a unique dataset at the individual level. Drawing on
Abstract: Using the Irish experience of the 1918–1919 Spanish flu pandemic (“Influenza-18”), we demonstrate how pandemic mortality statistics can be sensitive to the demographic composition
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