In the name of the Father: marriage and intergenerational mobility in the United States, 1850-1930

This paper constructs a continuous and consistent measure of intergenerational mobility in the United States between 1850 and 1930 by linking individuals with the same first name across pairs of decennial Censuses. One of the advantages of this methodology is that it allows to calculate intergenerational correlations not only between fathers and sons, but also between fathers-in-law and sons-in-law, something that is typically not possible with historical data. Thus, the paper sheds light on the role of marriage in the intergenerational transmis- sion of economic status from a historical perspective. We find that the father-son correlation in economic status grows throughout the period, but is consistently lower than the correlation between fathers-in-law and sons-in-law. The gap declines over time, and seems to have closed by the end of the period. We present a simple model of investment in human capital, marital sorting and intergenerational mobility that can rationalize the ?ndings

Chilean-type capital controls: A building block of the new international financial architecture?

Taxes on short-term capital flows such as introduced in Chile and Slovenia during the 1990s in the form of unremunerated reserve requirements (URRs) on financial credits are under discussion as a remedy against adverse effects of volatile international capital flows. From a theoretical point of view, URRs find support from the fact that financial markets react faster to exogenous shocks than goods markets. A high volatility of capital flows, in turn, may reduce investment and exports, and thus negatively affect overall growth. A tax designed to reduce inflows of (short-term) capital and to enhance the autonomy of domestic monetary policy may therefore raise welfare. Yet, the effectiveness of URRs is limited because capital controls can at best delay but not prevent speculative attacks on misaligned currencies. Moreover, a temporary introduction of capital controls, as is often proposed in the case of an acute financial crisis, may have the adverse effect of increasing rather than lowering financial market volatility. The empirical evidence from Chile and Slovenia shows that URRs are no panacea and that the gain in monetary autonomy has been limited. While the composition of inflows has changed towards flows exempted from the URR, the overall inflow of capital has increased, and interest rate effects have been short-lived. There is no evidence that the volatility of capital flows has declined. Exchange rate volatility seems to have come down, albeit possibly as a result of exchange market intervention. Capital controls are often proposed as a tool to promote the stability of the financial sector. More specifically, it is often argued that external financial liberalization should proceed only after sufficient progress has been made in reforming the domestic banking system. Yet, the administrative capacity to enforce capital controls is typically weak precisely in those countries which have poorly supervised and thus potentially unstable banking systems. Also, foreign competition can enhance the efficiency of the domestic financial sector. Thus, progressing simultaneously on internal and external financial liberalization seems the preferable option. At the time of opening up for foreign capital, minimum prudential standards should be in place. Also, public deposit guarantees should have been abolished in order to limit the risk of overborrowing and moral hazard. The imposition of capital controls may even send negative signals to investors and thus affect investment negatively. Exposure to external shocks should rather be reduced by pursuing structural reforms, by following sound macroeconomic policies, by disseminating clear and transparent information, and by using market mechanisms to alter the structure of foreign debt. This also allows for a more efficient use of scarce administrative resources. In this context, international institutions have an important role to play in designing and enforcing an institutional framework in which such mechanisms can be implemented. --

Tort Reform, Disputes and Belief Formation

We experimentally study the effects of the split-award tort reform, where the state takes a share of the plaintiff's punitive damage award, on litigants' beliefs and bargaining outcomes. In addition, we study the formation of litigants' beliefs in a strategic environment. Our results provide support for coherence-based reasoning theories: coherence shifts in litigants' background beliefs (elicited before a role is assigned and after commitment to a choice at the pretrial bargaining stage) suggest bi-directionality between choices and beliefs. Our findings also suggest role-specific bias in the updating of plaintiffs' beliefs about firm's negligence. Finally, our findings indicate that split-awards affect plaintiffs' beliefs about fairness and lower out-of-court settlement amounts.Tort Reform; Belief Formation; Split-Award Statute; Coherence-Based-Reasoning; Role-Specific Bias; Self-Serving Bias; Motivated Reasoning; Settlement; Litigation; Experiments; Debiasing through Law

Modification of the SHABERTH bearing code to incorporate RP-1 and a discussion of the traction model

Recently developed traction data for Rocket Propellant 1 (RP-1), a hydrocarbon fuel of the kerosene family, was used to develop the parameters needed by the bearing code SHABERTH in order to include RP-1 as a lubricant choice. The procedure for inputting data for a new lubricant choice is reviewed, and the theoretical fluid traction model is discussed. Comparisons are made between experimental traction data and those predicted by SHABERTH for RP-1. All data needed to modify SHABERTH for use with RP-1 as a lubricant are specified

Screening of point charges in Si quantum dots

The screening of point charges in hydrogenated Si quantum dots ranging in diameter from 10 A to 26 A has been studied using first-principles density-functional methods. We find that the main contribution to the screening function originates from the electrostatic field set up by the polarization charges at the surface of the nanocrystals. This contribution is well described by a classical electrostatics model of dielectric screening

In the name of the son (and the daughter): intergenerational mobility in the United States, 1850-1940

This paper estimates historical intergenerational elasticities between fathers and children of both sexes in the United States using a novel empirical strategy. The key insight of our approach is that the information about socioeconomic status conveyed by first names can be used to create pseudo-links across generations. We find that both father-son and father-daughter elasticities were flat during the nineteenth century, increased sharply between 1900 and 1920, and declined slightly thereafter. We discuss the role of regional disparities in economic development, trends in inequality and returns to human capital, and the marriage market in explaining these patterns

Observational Derivation of Einstein's``Law of the Constancy of the Velocity of Light in Vacuo"

On the basis of Galilean invariance and the Doppler formula, combined with an observational condition, it is shown that the constancy of the velocity of light {\it in vacuo} can be derived, together with time-dilatation and Lorentz contraction. It is not necessary to take the constancy as a postulate.Comment: 5 pages AIP-tex. Conference "Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations 3", Vaxjo Sweden, June 2005. To appear in AIP conference serie