The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Articles in this Issue
Manufacturing Revolutions: Industrial Policy and Industrialization in South Korea
Abstract I study the effect of industrial policies on industrial development by considering an important episode during the East Asian miracle: South Korea’s heavy and chemical industry...
The Optimal Taxation of Couples
ABSTRACT We study optimal nonlinear taxation of single and married households. Taxes on couples depend on the earnings of both spouses and are an example of multidimensional tax schedul...
Collective Bargaining for Women: How Unions Can Create Female-Friendly Jobs
ABSTRACT We study the role of unions in improving workplaces for women. Starting in 2015, Brazil’s largest trade union federation made women central to its agenda. Using a difference-in...
Lives Versus Livelihoods: The Impact of the Great Recession on Mortality and Welfare
ABSTRACT We leverage spatial variation in the severity of the Great Recession across the United States to examine its impact on mortality and explore the quantitative implications. W...
Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement
Abstract Economists often measure discrimination as disparities arising from the direct effects of group identity. We develop new tools to model and measure systemic discrimination, cap...
Revealed Beliefs and the Marriage Market Return to Education
Abstract We develop a new methodology to estimate subjective beliefs from hypothetical-choice data. Our identification approach is based on the novel insight that by varying the amount...
The Evolutionary Stability of Moral Foundations
ABSTRACT Moral foundations theory is an influential empirical description of moral perception. According to this theory, individuals make moral judgments based on five distinct “moral f...
Structural Estimation Under Misspecification: Theory and Implications for Practice
ABSTRACT A researcher can use a tightly parameterized structural model to obtain internally consistent estimates of a wide range of economically interesting targets. We ask how reliable...
“Descended from Immigrants and Revolutionists”: How Family History Shapes Immigration Policy Making
Abstract Does family history matter for policy making in democracies? Linking members of Congress (MCs) to the census, we observe countries of birth for members, their parents, and thei...
Voluntary Minimum Wages: The Local Labor Market Effects of National Retailer Policies
ABSTRACT Low unionization rates, a falling real federal minimum wage, and outsourcing have hampered wage growth in the low-wage sector in the United States for several decades. In recen...
A Monetary-Fiscal Theory of Sudden Inflations
ABSTRACT This article posits an information channel as an explanation for sudden inflations. Households saving via nominal government bonds face a choice whether to acquire costly infor...
Micro MPCs and Macro Counterfactuals: The Case of the 2008 Rebates
ABSTRACT We present evidence that the high estimated marginal propensities to consume (MPCs) from the leading household studies result in implausible macroeconomic counterfactuals. Usin...
What Works and for Whom? Effectiveness and Efficiency of School Capital Investments Across the U.S.
ABSTRACT This article identifies which investments in school facilities help students and which are valued by homeowners. Using novel data on school district bonds, test scores, and hou...
The Race Between Education, Technology, and the Minimum Wage
ABSTRACT What is the effect of the real minimum wage on wages and inequality? I develop a theory that nests the race between education and technology. The theory predicts that the effec...
The Long-Run Effects of America’s Largest Residential Racial Desegregation Program: Gautreaux
ABSTRACT This article studies the effects of the largest residential racial desegregation initiative in U.S. history, the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program. From the late 1970s to t...