Area: Economics

Silhouette of biker near a power plant with smoke stack Research Brief / Sustainability

Household Energy Conservation: Appeal to Cost Savings or Environmental and Health Impacts?

Money-saving messages lose impact over time, while worry about dangerous pollution helps consumers show discipline

International students with Chinese and French flags Research Brief / Education

Cultures That Delay Gratification: Their Immigrants to the U.S. Excel in School

The benefit to students increases over time

Monochrome photo of soldiers marching Research Brief / Cultural History

Bowling for Fascism: Exploring the Dark Side of Social Capital

In pre-World War II Germany, sports clubs became a vehicle to spread Nazism

Illustration of German rebels Research Brief / Cultural History

German Rebels Who Helped Lincoln Win the Civil War: A Natural Experiment in Leadership

Leaders of a failed 1848 revolt are followed to towns across the U.S.

Illustration of a guillotine Research Brief / Cultural History

Beyond Angry Mobs: Intellectuals in the French Revolution

History’s Encyclopédie subscribers are matched to grievances against the monarchy

Inverted image of a calculator Research Brief / Taxes

Boo! Does Merely Mentioning an Audit Increase Taxpayer Compliance?

Research undermines the notion that companies coldly calculate tax avoidance

Illustration of buildings Research Brief / Behavioral Economics

$54,000 a Year: It Feels Like More If Your Neighbors Make Less

Ricardo Perez-Truglia’s research uses relocation choices of medical residents to study feelings about relative income

Illustration of hands raised in blue, with one hand colored red Feature / Politics

Campaign Contributions Swayed by Neighbors’ Politics

A field experiment using public donation data indicates peer pressure matters

Illustration of a man looking at a carrot while a magnet opens his head Research Brief / Nudges

Behavioral Economics: Are Nudges Cost-Effective?

A team of experts makes the financial case that governments should spend more on nudging

Sepia photo of four farmers Research Brief / Gender Gap

A History of Plough-Based Farming Leads to Fewer Girls

Modern-day gender ratios are linked to countries’ agricultural roots

Guillermo Moreno Research Brief / Economics

Citizens Are Not Fooled by Fake Statistics

What happened when the Argentine government lied about inflation numbers?

Man carrying a ball, playing indigenous sports Research Brief / Cultural History

A Stabler Climate Means Stronger Traditions

The link between environmental stability and cultural change explains why cultures evolve

Illustration of a capital city Research Brief / Government

How the Seemingly Rapid Advance of Democracy Goes Astray

Using voting records from a unique transition in the 19th-century Caribbean, Christian Dippel examines the embrace of self-interest by new legislators

Book cover of American Default Book Review / Economics

A Shocking Tale of Sovereign Default and Private Contracts Nullified

Sebastian Edwards brings to life a widely forgotten chapter of U.S. history starring FDR, his no-name economist and the demise of the gold standard

Monochrome photo of FDR Research Brief / Economics

Keynes vs. FDR: Lessons from the Great Recession

Sebastian Edwards finds Keynes’ public take-down of Roosevelt’s gold policies still relevant today

Illustration of a map Research Brief / Cultural History

How Local Governance Came to England’s Economy

Nico Voigtländer found that to combat arbitrary taxes and corruption, merchants persuaded the king to cede control