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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Cummins, Neil; Clark, Gregory |
| Abstract: | What happens across generations to wealth shocks? Do they endure and even magnify, or do they dissipate? By implication, how much modern wealth is attributable to events before 1900? This paper uses random shocks to family size in England before 1880 that created wealth shocks for the children to measure the persistence of wealth shocks. Fertility in England before 1880 was a biological lottery. For richer families, family size strongly influenced child wealth. This paper finds that such biology-induced wealth shocks had no impact on descendant wealth by three generations later. Since wealth itself persisted across more than five generations this implies that, in the long run, wealth mainly derives from sources other than inherited wealth. The observed link between nineteenth century and modern wealth does not lie in wealth transfers alone. Wealth persisted because of the familial inheritance of behaviors associated with wealth accumulation and retention. |
| Keywords: | inequality;inheritance;social mobility |
| JEL: | D31 J62 N13 N33 |
| Date: | 2026–10–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:141128 |
| By: | Oded Galor; Luca Pensieroso; Daniel C. Wainstock |
| Abstract: | How could inequality between social classes have ever persisted during the Malthusian epoch, as affluence led to greater reproductive success, diluting inherited wealth and narrowing disparities over time? This paper uncovers the Paradox of Inequality, establishes its robust theoretical foundations, and provides its resolution. The analysis suggests that elites’ lavish, nonproductive displays of status inadvertently diverted resources from reproduction, limiting the dilution of inherited wealth and sustaining inequality across generations. Ironically, extravagance preserved the wealth it seemed to squander. |
| Keywords: | inequality, Malthusian epoch, conspicuous consumption, fertility, paradox |
| JEL: | O10 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13052 |
| By: | Schmitt, Maximilian L. (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Microeconomics & Public Economics); Rusch, Hannes (Microeconomics & Public Economics, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research) |
| Abstract: | Exploitative employers damage the very labor force on which they depend. Accordingly, this paper models exploitation and labor-force quality as a coupled dynamical system: exploiters spread when high-quality labor makes extraction profitable, but their success degrades the labor environment that sustains those profits. We show that this coupling generates persistent cycles rather than convergence toastable level of exploitation. Our policy extension shows that responsive enforcement can dampen these cycles, induce convergence, and improve welfare. We contribute by elucidating exploitation dynamics and demonstrating how eco-evolutionary methods can be applied to study labor markets on which employers compete with exploiters. |
| Keywords: | exploitation, labor-force quality, persistent cycles |
| JEL: | C73 J21 J47 |
| Date: | 2026–10–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2026011 |
| By: | David Card; Jesse Rothstein; Moises Yi |
| Abstract: | We use data on 44, 000 twin pairs observed as adolescents in the 2000 Census, linked to their earnings 20 years later, to study the heritability of labor market outcomes. We extend the Classical Twins Design (CTD), which identifies heritability from contrasts between monozygotic and dizygotic twins, to settings where an analyst does not observe zygosity but can measure outcomes for same-sex and opposite-sex twins. We also allow for the presence of a family- and sex-specific component affecting same-sex siblings but only partly shared by opposite-sex siblings. Our extended model identifies heritability from the difference-in-differences of same-sex vs. opposite-sex twins vs. siblings. The estimates indicate strong heritability (h2 » 0.36) of log earnings. Using an AKM (Abowd et al., 1999) decomposition that separates the person-specific component of earnings from employer-specific pay premiums, we find that both components are heritable. The heritability of employer pay premiums, however, is mainly driven by same-sex twins who work at the same firm, suggesting that social interactions may lead to an over-estimate of the genetic component in earnings. Excluding siblings who work together leads to estimates of the heritability of log earnings that are 15% lower. Similar biases may be present in CTD-based estimates of heritability for other social outcomes like education. |
| JEL: | C31 D31 J24 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-57 |