Research Brief Library

In recent decades, civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including armed rebellion that threatens to expand regionally, has raised numerous challenges for the state and its citizens, from how a weakened state can effectively manage security and...

This study tests whether social signaling can positively influence parents’ vaccination decisions in Sierra Leone. Giving children color-coded bracelets that indicate their vaccination status increases parents’ belief in the visibility of their actions and their knowledge of other children’s vaccine...

When heterosexual couples in Germany and Sweden relocate, men’s earnings increase by 5-10%, while women’s do not change. Couples are more likely to relocate when the man, rather than the woman, is laid off. These gaps appear at least in...

Why do people hate inflation? Employers do not automatically give workers raises when inflation is high. Instead, workers have to fight for raises, leading to conflict with employers. Accounting for this conflict meaningfully changes the costs of inflation to workers.

Nudging energy prosumers to conserve via a home energy report reduces their energy consumption, with significant variation across seasons and times of day. This suggests that prosumers both shift their energy use away from peak hours and conserve overall.

During pandemics, rapid vaccination can significantly reduce mortality, economic losses, and societal disruptions. Vaccine manufacturers often lack incentives to expand their speed and capacity, however. This market failure can be addressed with strategic policies that realign incentives both during and...

Black men born between 1940 and 1950 played an outsized role in narrowing occupational disparities between Black and White men and determining today’s distribution of jobs. This momentum dissipated in later cohorts, however, and today’s disparities in occupational mobility are...

The stock market reacts to monetary policy surprises mainly because of changes in the default-free yield curve, rather than changes in the equity premium.

The United States’ position as the global hegemon endows it with an “exorbitant privilege”: It can borrow cheaply from the rest of the world. This global source of funding can support investment in its military, which further solidifies its hegemonic...

The mere possibility of invoking Colombia’s “don’t be a toad” social norm, which tells people to mind their own business, increases deviation from fair social outcomes. Even though most people disapprove of the norm, they expect the majority to invoke...