Sociology of Wealth
What CrossFit reveals about how brands really earn loyalty
A two-year study of CrossFit proposes that some brands earn devotion not by building communities or telling myths, but by supplying consumers with a full script for reinventing themselves.
Do we overestimate how much a raise will improve our lives? A new experiment says yes
A randomized experiment finds that people substantially overestimate how much a raise will improve their life satisfaction, and correcting that belief shifts their stated choices away from higher-income options.
A new look at Social Security’s “windfall to the initial old”
A new study tracing early Social Security recipients' children finds that sons moved farther, earned more, and retired in wealthier neighborhoods, while daughters, tied to caregiving, saw no such gains.
What the 2021–2024 unauthorized immigration boom did to U.S. jobs, rents, and welfare spending
A new Dallas Fed working paper uses administrative microdata to measure how the 2021–2024 surge in unauthorized immigration affected local U.S. labor markets, housing prices, and government transfer spending.
Why some countries embraced remote work and others didn’t
A survey of 14,427 workers across 37 countries finds that cultural individualism explains 29 percent of the variation in remote work rates, more than industry mix, GDP, density, or lockdown severity combined.
The economics of getting noticed: what a Twitter experiment revealed about academic hiring
A field experiment on Twitter found that when prominent economists shared job candidates' papers, the work drew far more attention and candidates landed more campus visits, with women seeing a notable rise in job offers.
Online stores do not fully replace closed bookshops, study finds
When a German bookstore closes, monthly print sales drop by about 744 copies, and online retailers do not pick up the slack. A new study finds physical and digital book channels are imperfect substitutes.
Does income inequality shrink the audience for culture?
A study of Italy's 20 regions finds that higher income inequality is linked to lower attendance at theaters, concerts, and museums, even after accounting for how much money people earn.
Persistent money trouble tied to later depression in students, study finds
A national Norwegian study followed more than 10,000 students and found that persistent money troubles predicted depression a year later, though much of the link was tied to distress students already carried.
Importing cheaper parts may slow a company’s drive to innovate
A study of 6,024 Canadian manufacturers finds that importing cheap components from low-wage countries was linked to a 15 percent drop in research spending, as cheaper old products dulled the incentive to develop new ones.