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on Minorities Research (Ethnic, LGBTQ+, Disabilities) |
| By: | Oded Galor; Marc Klemp; Daniel C. Wainstock |
| Abstract: | What gave rise to the mosaic of cultural expressions across the globe? Why are some societies more culturally diverse than others? This study develops a unified theory of cultural evolution, characterizing the forces that have governed this process over the course of human existence. The research advances the hypothesis that population movements and socioeconomic transformations generated a mismatch between inherited cultural traits and prevailing ecological and societal conditions, setting in motion an evolutionary process governed by adaptation-based vertical transmission, horizontal diffusion, and fitness-based evolutionary selection. The theory generates novel testable predictions concerning the origins of the global cultural mosaic and the cross-societal variation in cultural diversity. First, greater ecological distance between ancestral environments generated greater cultural distance across societies. Second, prehistoric differences in ancestral diversity contributed to divergent adaptive capacity and greater cultural distance. Third, societies descended from more diverse prehistoric populations exhibit greater cultural diversity despite convergence induced by adaptation to a common environment and societal norms. Drawing on measures of cultural distance and diversity derived from folkloric and musical traditions among ethnic groups, visual representations of common concepts, and the dispersion of norms, values, and attitudes, the empirical analysis lends credence to the predictions of the theory. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Diversity, Adaptation, Fitness, Cultural Evolution, Vertical Transmission, Social Norms |
| JEL: | O10 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26249 |
| By: | Yajna Govind (Copenhagen Business School); Paolo Santini (Copenhagen Business School); Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | We study racial inequality in 21st century France. Using parents’ nationality at birth, we overcome the lack of ethno-racial statistics stemming from the country’s “color-blind†approach. We document substantial earnings penalties for racial minorities along the income distribution. Penalties are larger at the median than the top and for Middle-Eastern and North African (MENA) and Sub-Saharan African origin (Black) individuals. We compare racial inequality in France vs. the U.S. by simulating where French minorities would fall in the U.S. distribution. Black and NonWhite individuals in France benefit from the country’s lower overall inequality, but experience comparable, occasionally larger, rank gaps. |
| Keywords: | France |
| JEL: | D31 J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:349 |
| By: | Black, Nicole (Monash University); Ma, Bernice (Monash University); Mai, D Tung (University of Melbourne); Skeels, Christopher (University of Melbourne); Staub, Kevin (University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | We develop a fixed-effects estimation framework for fractional-outcome panel models with a logit conditional mean. Pairwise quasi-differencing eliminates individual effects from the moment conditions, yielding a generalized method of moments estimator that is consistent under the stated moment restrictions even when the number of time period is finite and fixed. The framework allows unrestricted dependence between individual effects and covariates, accommodates endogenous regressors through instrumental variables, and extends to multivariate shares that sum to one. Boundary observations require no adjustment, and average semi-elasticities can be estimated without recovering the individual effects. We apply the framework to Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), using HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) survey data for 2011-2023 and instruments based on the scheme's staggered geographic rollout. We examine how NDIS receipt affects the allocation of time across paid work, housework, disability care, and remaining activities for recipients and other household members. The estimates indicate that recipients reduce work and disability care, while other household members increase disability care. |
| Keywords: | panel data, fixed effects, fractional responses, share data, time use, disability support |
| JEL: | C23 C24 I18 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18969 |
| By: | Sahoo, Soham (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore); Sogani, Shweta (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore) |
| Abstract: | Can childhood exposure to intergroup violence widen long-run inequality between majority and minority groups? We link the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India to historical records of Hindu–Muslim riot fatalities to investigate this question. Identification comes from whether Muslim–Hindu gaps differ across childhood district–birth cohorts with different riot exposure, after absorbing district-cohort conditions and allowing religious gaps to vary across districts and cohorts. More than three decades later, greater exposure is associated with worse psychological well-being among Muslims relative to Hindus: depressive symptoms rise, while life satisfaction, perceived social position, and sleep deteriorate. Exposure is also associated with lower household consumption, durable asset ownership, and property ownership. These disparities are accompanied by lower educational progression and a labour-market pattern of higher participation but lower earnings and lower salaried employment, consistent with human-capital and labour-market pathways through which childhood violence may shape later-life inequality. Intergroup violence can therefore leave persistent minority-specific costs in both mental health and material well-being. |
| Keywords: | communal violence, childhood exposure, mental health, minorities, religious inequality, India |
| JEL: | D74 I14 I31 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18974 |
| By: | Kirkcaldy, Hollye; Prosser, Annayah Miranda Beatrice (University of Bath); MacLennan, Keren (University of Bath); Demski, Christina |
| Abstract: | As extreme heat becomes a more frequent consequence of climate change, understanding how marginalised populations experience it is critical for adaptation. Disabled people are routinely categorised as ‘at-risk’, yet research largely quantifies heat risk at population level, leaving lived dimensions of heat experience for Disabled people under-explored, particularly in the UK. Drawing on theories of ableism and psycho-emotional disablism, this qualitative study asks how Disabled people in the UK experience extreme heat and what shapes their capacity to adapt. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 self-identified Disabled adults across the UK between July and September 2025 and analysed data using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Across three main themes, participants depict heat as an actively disabling environmental condition which erodes capacity, diminishes identity, exposes ableist assumptions in adaptation and is mediated by material and structural conditions across housing, care and urban infrastructure. Current adaptation frameworks contain significant blind spots, including the temporal and psycho-emotional dimensions of heat harm, and are, in some respects, actively harmful for Disabled people. Addressing this requires a fundamental interrogation of whose knowledge informs the design of heat adaptation policy in the UK. |
| Date: | 2026–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:2tg87_v1 |
| By: | Alyssa Vespuce Desvarieux (Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business); Taoufik Bouraoui (Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business) |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes the impact of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance on US companies' profitability. We used as proxies CO2 emissions for the environmental component, job satisfaction and gender pay gap for the social pillar, and ethnic diversity on board for the governance pillar. We implemented a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) using monthly data during the period from December 2008 to January 2022. Our results reveal that, in the long-term, increasing ethnic diversity on board and reducing gender pay gap contribute to an enhancement in profitability. However, in the short-term, companies' financial performance is found to be affected positively by CO2 emissions and negatively by ethnic diversity on board. Overall, the potential for increased company's performance and the well-being of society when ESG considerations are effectively integrated into corporate strategies should encourage companies to include ESG practices into their business models. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable finance profitability ESG Vector Error Correction Model, Vector Error Correction Model, ESG, profitability, Sustainable finance |
| Date: | 2026–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05743284 |
| By: | Karinna Saxby (Melbourne Institute or Applied Economic an Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Australia); Curtis Chan (Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney); Travis Campbell (Department of Economics, Southern Oregon University); Clue Coman (Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney); Anthony K J Smith (Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney); Brendan J Nolan (Trans Health Research Group, University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | Background: Trans and nonbinary (‘trans’) people experience a disproportionate HIV burden but use fewer HIV prevention strategies, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), relative to the general population. Emerging literature suggests an association between gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) and PrEP uptake, however the evidence is mixed and limited to cross-sectional analyses of transfeminine people on estradiol-based GAHT, with no data in transmasculine people on testosterone-based GAHT. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, we analysed linked, whole-of-population administrative health records (2018-2025) for 5, 796 transmasculine and 8, 079 transfeminine Australians who initiated testosterone-based GAHT and estradiol-based GAHT. Using a stacked event-study design, we compared changes in monthly PrEP uptake (supply of any PrEP script) in the 36 months before and 24 months after GAHT initiation with contemporaneous changes among people of a similar age who initiated the same regimen in the future. Effects were estimated separately for transfeminine and transmasculine people and compared to uptake 13 to 18 months pre-GAHT. Findings: For both transfeminine and transmasculine people, PrEP uptake did not significantly vary relative to the reference period and was stable over time ( |
| Keywords: | transgender, PrEP, HIV, gender-affirmation, hormone therapy |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J16 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2026n13 |