Knowledge that Transforms

We present evidence that is consistent with large disparities across firms in their on-the-job learning opportunities using administrative datasets from Brazil and Italy. We categorize firms into discrete “classes”—which our conceptual framework interprets as skill-learning classes—using a clustering methodology that groups together firms with similar distributions of unexplained wage growth. Mincerian returns to experience vary widely across experiences acquired in different firm classes. Four tests leveraging firm movers, occupation/industry switchers, hiring wages, and displaced workers point toward a portable and general human capital interpretation. Heterogeneous employment experiences explain an important share of wage variance by age 35.

Firstborns, on average, complete more education than laterborns. We study whether individuals’ endowments measured by genetic information amplify this effect. Our familyfixed effects approach allows exploiting exogenous variation in birth order and genetic endowments among 14,850 siblings in the UK Biobank. We find that those with higher genetic endowments benefit disproportionately more from being firstborn compared to those with lower endowments, providing a clean example of how nature and nurture interact in producing human capital. Since parental investments are a dominant channel driving birth order effects, our results are consistent with complementarity between endowments and investments in human capital formation.

We analyze trends in labor-market returns to psychological traits using data from half a million Finnish men from 2001 to 2015. Cognitive skills' value declined, while noncognitive skills' value increased. Our novel findings show that extraversion drives this rise, while conscientiousness remains stable. Extraversion's rising returns are most pronounced for lower earners and those on the employment margin. These traits predict different labor market paths: extraversion predicts lower education and more work experience, while cognitive ability and conscientiousness lead to higher education and high-paying jobs.

We investigate the role of gender norms in shaping parental childcare following changes in the relative take-home pay of mothers and fathers. Exploiting variation from Swedish tax reforms, we estimate the elasticity of substitution in parental childcare for native and immigrant couples from a variety of countries characterized by varying gender norms. Couples originating from countries with relatively conservative norms are more likely to reallocate childcare to mothers following a reduction in the father’s tax rate and less likely to reallocate childcare to fathers following a reduction in the mother’s tax rate, thereby reinforcing a traditional allocation of childcare across parents.

We study the consequences of job markets' heavy reliance on referrals. Referrals lead to more opportunities for workers to be hired, which lead to better matches and increased productivity but also disadvantage job seekers with few or no connections to employed workers, increasing inequality. Coupled with homophily, referrals also lead to immobility. We identify conditions under which distributing referrals more evenly reduces inequality and improves future productivity and mobility. We use the model to examine the short- and long-run welfare impacts of policies such as affirmative action and algorithmic fairness.

This paper examines the multigenerational impact of children and whether the public provision of formal childcare lessens the earnings and employment impacts of children. We find that the arrival of a firstborn reduces employment and earnings of mothers and employment of grandmothers. Studying a universal childcare program in Quebec, we find that formal childcare increases the employment rates of mothers as well as that of grandmothers to a lesser extent. Examining heterogeneity of the program’s impact across census divisions, we find a negative correlation between the positive effects on mothers’ employment and the prepolicy supply of informal childcare by grandmothers.

Ethan Ilzetzki of London School of Economics reviews “King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World’s Dominant Currency” by Paul Blustein. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the US dollar's rise to global prominence, assessing the resilience of the dollar's dominance and its implications for US power and responsibility.”

Michael D. Bordo of Rutgers University reviews “Shock Values: Prices and Inflation in American Democracy” by Carola Binder. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores how price fluctuations and attempts to manage them have shaped American democracy, analyzing examples of the disparate impacts of price fluctuations and their political consequences.”

Adam Looney of David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, and the Brookings Institution reviews “Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education” by Charlie Eaton. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the relationship between rising student loan debt and the growth of concentrated endowment wealth, explaining how the resurgent power of financiers is tied to increasing inequality in higher education and America as a whole.”