Seitlicher Blick auf das D4 Gebäude.

David de la Croix (UCLouvain) on “Nepotism vs. Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in Academia (1088-1800)”

07/10/2022

Economic Research Seminar (Department Seminar) on Wednesday, October 12th, 4.30 to 6 pm

The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the Economic Research Seminar (Department Seminar) on Wednesday, October 12th, with

David de la Croix(UCLouvain) on “Nepotism vs. Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in Academia (1088-1800)”

Abstract: We build a comprehensive database of father-son pairs in academia, measure their publications,  and develop a general method to disentangle two determinants of occupational persistence: nepotism vs. inherited human capital. This requires jointly addressing measurement error in human capital and selection from nepotism. Exploiting multi-generation correlations and parent-child distributional differences, we identify the structural parameters of a Markov process of intergenerational transmission with nepotism. The human capital elasticity is lower than in standard multi-generation estimates ignoring nepotism. Nepotism was lower in science vs. law, in Protestant institutions, and declined during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, testifying to the rise of meritocracy.

Date: Wednesday, October 12th

Time: 4.30 to 6 pm (CET)

Location: building D4, ground floor, room D4.0.133

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