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Pietro Biroli, Ph.D.

University of Zürich, Switzerland

Authors: Pietro Biroli and Maria-Fernanda Rosales

Abstract: Social and racial inequality in the US persistently influences socio-economic outcomes. However, racial differences in outcomes decline or disappear once educational achievement is controlled for. This paper aims to understand how racial gaps in skills are formed, how they evolve throughout childhood, and how they contribute to inequality in long term outcomes. We study racial differences in human capital formation within the context of family environments and parental investments, and examine how they affect early skills to produce subsequent human capital. Since investments are not exogenously determined, we use the rich information provided by the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY) and leverage exogenous changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) at the federal and state level during late 1980’s and 1990’s to identify the effect of investments. We find that the dynamic process of human capital development perpetuates racial disparities in cognitive skills, socio-emotional abilities, health, family environments, and investments that arise early in life. These disparities then translate into later gaps in achievement and ultimately in gaps in adult socio-economic outcomes.

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Projects in Applied Economics for Talented Students is a free 12-week research program designed for talented high school students who wish to gain a deeper understanding of Economics, learn and apply research methodology and pursue their own research interests supervised by experienced academics.

The projects are organized by the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economic Institute (CERGE-EI), a joint workplace of Charles University in Prague and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Mondays, Tuesdays, 17:00-19:00
Starting date: 26 & 27 September, 2016
Finishing date: 11 & 12 December, 2016

Program agenda:

·         The basics of economics and research methods (week 1 – 6)

·         Research project based on obtained real data under supervision (week 7 – 10)

·         Presentation skills workshop (week 11)

·         Research results presentation (week 12)

More information about the project.