Firms and the Gender Wage Gap: A Comparison of Eleven Countries We quantify the role of gender-specific firm wage premiums in explaining the

    Professor Kevin O’Rourke gave the Alice Murray Distinguished Scholar Lecture on Thursday 19th February 2026 at 17:00 in the Neill Lecture Theatre of

    Do Oil Booms have Persistent Local Impacts? Historical Evidence Does history matter for urbanization? This paper examines whether short-run shocks to urban population

    The Age of Mass Migration (c. 1850–1920) witnessed substantial circular migration flows, with roughly one-fifth of Swedish emigrants eventually returning from the United

    American Relief and the Soviet Famine of 1921–1922 (by Natalya Naumenko, Volha Charnysh, Andrei Markevich) Abstract: This paper evaluates one of the first

    Giacomo de Giorgi is a Professor of Economics at the University of Geneva. https://sites.google.com/site/giacomodegiorgi/

  Zoning and the American Suburb Abstract: American suburbs were transformed after WWII, with mixed-use development giving way to low-density, purely residential neighborhoods. This paper

    The Fatal Consequences of Brain Drain Abstract: This paper examines the welfare consequences of reallocating high-skilled labor across borders. A labor demand shock

    Councils and Indirect Rule in British Africa Abstract: How did Western colonial rule affect political institutions in Africa? We study the institutional makeup

    Professor Jane Humphries will give the Alice Murray Distinguished Scholar Lecture on Thursday 27th February 2025 at 17:00 in the Neill Lecture Theatre

  Climate Politics in the United States Abstract: We study the effects of climate change and mitigation on U.S. politics. We combine 2000-2020 precinct-level voting

  Religious Competition and Provision of Public Services Abstract: We argue that competition created through foreign influence in education, between missionaries and ethno-religious minorities can

    The Bankruptcy Express: Market Integration, Organizational Changes, and Financial Distress in 19th Century Britain   Jean Lacroix is an Associate Professor at the

Commodity Price Busts and Financial Stability: Evidence from the 1920s   Kilian Rieder is a FWF Schrödinger Prize Fellow at Northwestern University‘s Department of Economics and Paris School of Economics

  Abstract: This paper documents that large cities played a unique role in women’s economic and social advances in the early 20th century. We first

  Abstract: Education is a main facilitator of social mobility, and higher education (HE) plays a major role in this. But while returns to HE

The Wealth Divide: Has Inequality Doomed The 2024 Elections? Are societies on the brink of fracture due to economic inequality? As 2024 shapes up to

  Herding, Warfare, and a Culture of Honor: Global Evidence Abstract: We examine the importance of norms of revenge and punishment in perpetuating global conflicts.

  Nikolaus Wolf is a Professor of Economics and Economic History at the Department of Economics and the Institute for Economic History at Humboldt-Universität zu