Sean E. Mulholland

How Important are Human Capital, Physical Capital and Total Factor Productivity for Determining State Economic Growth in the United States, 1840-2000?

This paper introduces new data on state-level physical capital by sector and land in the farm sector for the states of the United States from 1840 to 2000. These data are incorporated into aggregate accounting exercises with the aim of comparing cross-state results to those found in cross-country samples. Our aggregate results agree closely with the cross-country literature: input accumulation accounts for most of output growth, between three-fifths and three-quarters, but variation in the growth of TFP accounts for about three-quarters of the variation in the growth rate of output per worker. In convergence accounting, convergence of log TFP accounts for about seventy percent of the observed convergence in log output per worker.

Income and Education of the States of the United States: 1840-2000

This article introduces original annual average years of schooling measures for each state from 1840 to 2000. The paper also combines original data on real state per-worker output with existing data to provide a more comprehensive series of real state output per worker from 1840 to 2000. These data show that the New England, Middle Atlantic, Pacific, East North Central, and West North Central regions have been educational leaders during the entire time period. In contrast, the South Atlantic, East South Central, and West South Central regions have been educational laggards. The Mountain region behaves differently than either of the aforementioned groups. Using their estimates of average years of schooling and average years of experience in the labor force, the authors estimate aggregate Mincerian earnings regressions. Their estimates indicate that a year of schooling increased output by between 8 percent and 12 percent, with a point estimate close to 10 percent. These estimates are in line with the body of evidence from the labor literature.

A Comparative Look at Private and Public Schools' Class Size Determinants.

This paper tests three theories of class size determination: that schools assign better‐behaved students, higher quality teachers, or higher‐achieving students into larger classes. Furthermore, we estimate how these methodologies differ between public and private schools. Using a nationally representative sample from the USA, we show that, within public schools, third‐grade class size is correlated with first‐grade ability and, to a lesser extent, first‐grade behavior. Private schools, however, appear to assign teachers reporting greater control over school policy to larger classes and teachers with more experience to smaller classes. Class size determination is due to uniquely different processes within public and private schools.

Ride-Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime

The advent of smart-phone based, ride-sharing applications has revolutionized the vehicle for hire market. Advocates point to the ease of use, lower prices, and shorter wait times compared to hailing a taxi or prearranging limousine service. Others argue that proper government oversight is necessary to protect ride-share passengers from driver error or vehicle parts failures and violence from unlicensed strangers. Using U.S. county-level data from 2007 through 2015, we investigate whether the introduction of the ride-sharing service Uber is associated with changes in fatal vehicle crashes and crime. We find that Uber s entry lowers the rate of DUIs and fatal accidents. For some specifications, we also find declines in arrests for assault and disorderly conduct. Conversely, we observe an increase in vehicle thefts.The advent of smart‐phone based, ride‐sharing applications has revolutionized the vehicle for hire market. Advocates point to the ease of use, lower prices, and shorter wait times compared to hailing a taxi or prearranging limousine service. Others argue that proper government oversight is necessary to protect ride‐share passengers from driver error or vehicle parts failures and violence from unlicensed strangers. Using U.S. county‐level data from 2007 through 2015, we investigate whether the introduction of the ride‐sharing service Uber is associated with changes in fatal vehicle crashes and crime. We find that Ubers entry lowers the rate of DUIs and fatal accidents. For some specifications, we also find declines in arrests for assault and disorderly conduct. Conversely, we observe an increase in vehicle thefts.

The Faculty Flutie Factor: Does Football Performance Affect a University’s US News and World Report Peer Assessment Score?

Analyzing the peer assessment portion of the US News and World Report’s college rankings, we find that administrators and faculty rate more highly universities whose football team receives a greater number of votes in either the final Associated Press or Coaches Poll. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, our estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in the number of votes received in either the Associated Press or USA Today Coaches’ Football Poll is viewed as positively as a forty point increase in a school’s SAT score at the 75th percentile.

Hate Source: White Supremacist Hate Groups and Hate Crime

The relationship between hate group activity and hate crime is theoretically ambiguous. Hate groups may incite criminal behavior in support of their beliefs. On the other hand, hate groups may reduce hate crime by serving as a forum for members to verbally vent their frustrations or as protection from future biased violence. I find that the presence of an active white supremacist hate group chapter is associated with an 18.7 percent higher hate crime rate. White supremacist groups are not associated with the level of anti-white hate crimes committed by non-whites, nor do they form in expectation of future hate crimes by non-whites.

The Peculiarities of Public and Private Production: Within School Sorting of Pupils

Economists predict inefficiencies in public relative to private production. This paper examines whether public and private institutions similarly sort students and teachers within schools. We use two nationally representative samples, covering high school and early elementary school. Public schools determine class size by ability and, to a lesser extent, by behavior. Private schools, however, primarily sort teachers, assigning teachers reporting greater control over discipline to larger classes. The endogeneity of class size due to non-random matching of students and teacher within institutions is due to uniquely different processes within public and private schools.

Dynastic Human Capital and Black-White Earnings Differentials in the United States, 1940–2000

We examine whether dynastic human capital (DHC) can explain the black-white wage gap. We fit a quantity-quality model to state-level data on fertility, mortality, and schooling but, notably, not earnings. Racial discrimination raised the cost of black schooling, thus depressing DHC not only of the current generation but of future generations via its role in producing human capital. Birth-state DHC helps explain the wage gap among stayers, while current-state DHC helps explain the gap among movers. These findings highlight the role of intergenerational transmission in the persistence of the wage gap and the role of migration in reducing it.

Cultural Bias: Gymnasts, Judges, and Bilateral Trade Agreements

Bilateral trade agreements may enhance, or at least define, cultural understanding across countries. Possible bias from greater cultural understanding can take many forms. Using execution and difficulty scores from the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships, we find that gymnasts who are scored by judges from trading partner countries realize a greater return in terms of execution score for each bump in difficulty than do gymnasts from non-trade partner countries.

Productivity Differences: The Importance of Intra-State Black/White Schooling Differences Across the United States, 1840-2000

Using newly created data containing real output per worker, real physical capital per worker, and human capital per worker for US states from 1840 to 2000, Turner et. al (2007) analyze the growth rates of aggregate inputs and total factor productivity (TFP). We continue this line of work by documenting the importance of TFP differences in explaining cross sectional variation in the levels of (log) output. We construct plausible upper bounds on the fraction of the variance in output levels that can be explained by TFP and inputs. Similar to the growth rate analysis, we find that TFP can, on average, explain nearly 90% of output variance while inputs can explain up to only 50% of output variance. We then consider the possibility that one major institutional difference across states, the extent to which blacks were denied access to formal education, might explain TFP differences across states. To this end, we generate and present a years of schooling measures, by race, at the state level from 1840 to 2000. While directly exploiting this series has very little impact on the upper bound of the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, we do find that the size of the gap between white and black years of schooling is negatively related to TFP in the period from 1840 to 1950. We also consider the extent to which time-varying rates of return on education alters the upper bound on the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, finding that time-varying rates have little impact. Finally, we find some evidence for external effects of higher education and physical capital.