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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Ulrika Ahrsjš (Stockholm School of Economics); Costas Meghir (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); MŒrten Palme (Stockholm University); Marieke Schnabel (University College London) |
| Abstract: | We examine the intergenerational effect of education policy on crime. Using administrative data that links outcomes across generations with crime records, we show that the Swedish comprehensive school reform, gradually implemented between 1949 and 1962, reduced conviction rates for both the generation directly affected by the reform and their sons. The reduction in conviction rates occurred in several types of crime. Mediation analysis suggests that key channels include increased parental educational attainment and household income, as well as reduced criminal behavior among fathers. |
| Date: | 2025–08–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2356r2 |
| By: | Marcel Preuss (Cornell University); Germán Reyes (Middlebury College and IZA); Jason Somerville (University of California, Santa Barbara); Joy Wu (University of British Columbia) |
| Abstract: | Elites disproportionately influence policymaking, yet little is known about their fairness and efficiency preferences—key determinants of support for redistributive policies. We investigate these preferences in an incentivized lab experiment with a group of future elites—Ivy League MBA students. We find that MBA students implement substantially more unequal earnings distributions than the average American, regardless of whether inequality stems from luck or merit. Their redistributive choices are also highly responsive to efficiency costs, with an elasticity an order of magnitude larger than that found in representative U.S. samples. Analyzing fairness ideals, we find that MBA students are less likely to be strict meritocrats than the broader population. These findings provide novel insights into how elites’ redistributive preferences may shape high levels of inequality in the U.S. |
| JEL: | D63 C91 H23 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0356 |