Research Brief Library

First-generation students—those whose parents lack college degrees—represent 70% of the student population but only 40% of top academic performers. Large excellence gaps emerge by 3rd grade and persist through high school, with socioeconomic status and school quality explaining only one-third...

A pricing reform in Israeli supermarkets that forced firms to adjust prices revealed that they operated with only partial knowledge of optimal pricing. When forced to explore new pricing strategies, firms gradually learned and improved performance, though meaningful deviations from...

Regions with lower education costs maintain persistently higher levels of human capital and development over centuries. Improving educational access in poor regions generates local benefits but may reduce global welfare when population shifts away from more productive areas. Policies that...

The Industrial Revolution fractured the strictures from a centuries-old “society of orders” in England, introducing the phenomenon of social mobility that created new opportunities for workers, and initiating a “dawn of liberty” for those previously entrenched in rigid social hierarchies.

Using a foreign language reduces the “winner’s curse” in auctions, as bidders make more strategic decisions and are less likely to overbid when processing information in a non-native tongue. This effect largely disappears as bidders receive feedback across consecutive auctions,...

Nearly all measured total factor manufacturing productivity growth since 1987, and its post-2000s decline, comes from a few computer-related industries. Conventional productivity growth statistics understate the manufacturing sector’s productivity by failing to fully capture quality improvements. TFP growth is understated...

Commercial AI detection tools significantly outperform open-source alternatives, with Pangram achieving near-zero error rates while open source options misclassify up to 78% of human text as AI-generated. A new policy framework allows institutions to systematically compare detectors based on their...

New technologies that exhibit economies of scale, that confer low adoption costs for new entrants, and that require organizational learning, give rise to superstar firms for a long period of time. These firms enjoy systematic advantages relative to both firms...

Parental income and family structure during childhood and adolescence affect adult income, with these familial influences strongest in middle childhood and adolescence. The effects of income and family structure trajectories exhibit a complementary relationship during key developmental periods.

China’s policymaking has historically been highly decentralized, with 82% of local policies originating as local initiatives, but since 2013 has become substantially more centralized as political incentives shifted from rewarding bottom-up innovation to strict enforcement of central policies. Top-down industrial...