Social norms are the glue that holds society together, yet our knowledge of them remains
heavily intellectually siloed. This article provides an interdisciplinary review of the emerging …

BACKGROUND Traditionally, research into contemporary economic development has taken
a primarily ahistorical approach. The study of the past was relegated to the separate field of …

We argue that a long-run cultural persistence of right-wing ideology can explain the recent
rise of right-wing populism. Shifts in the supply of party platforms can interact with this …

Marking a decade since the publication of “The weirdest people in the world,” this special
issue is dedicated to exploring how to improve the quality of the science produced by the …

The presence of a westward‐moving frontier of settlement shaped early US history. In 1893,
the historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the American frontier fostered …

Across the social sciences, a key question is how societies manage to enforce cooperative
behavior in social dilemmas such as public goods provision or bilateral trade. According to …

Can external threats strengthen group identity? A growing body of research in economics
emphasises the importance of cultural attributes such as identity for trust and cooperation …

Religious beliefs potentially influence individual behaviour. But why are some societies
more religious than others? One possible answer is religious co**: individuals turn to …

Is persistence a myth or a fact? In this chapter, I survey the literature on persistence in
historical economics. I first clarify some of the concepts, before presenting a classification of …

China's civil examination system (keju), an incredibly long-lived institution, has a persistent
impact on human capital outcomes today. Using the variation in the density of **shi—the …