James Feigenbaum

Associate Professor of Economics at Boston University | Economic History, Labor, Inequality

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

The tldr version in two pictures. MCs come from elite and unrepresentative families. Across 130+ years, the gap between MC fathers and tightly-matched controls has ~grown, absolutely not shrunk.

Whatever opened up about American politics, it wasn’t who gets to Congress.

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

Excited to share an updated paper from a longstanding agenda with @ahall_research, @danmthomp, @jesselyoder: "Fortunate Sons: Elite Political Selection in American History" https://t.co/mVDfK2mvL4

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

@lu_sichu I think we're like 10 generations too short to be truly Clarkian, but I see your point. Hadn't thought about that comparison, but it's a similar flavor of quasi-fixed level of social mobility despite any kind of institutional/economic/political/etc changes

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

@robgillezeau @ShariJEli I cannot believe how long it was since our last conference together, though the 4 hour dinner made up for it

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

Excited to share an updated paper from a longstanding agenda with @ahall_research, @danmthomp, @jesselyoder: "Fortunate Sons: Elite Political Selection in American History" https://t.co/mVDfK2mvL4

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

Cool, screwed up the first image... off to a good start

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

Had a great time presenting this at UToronto (thanks @robgillezeau and @ShariJEli) last week. Slides only for now, but the paper will be posted this month (he's said before... But now I have a public commitment). We’ve been building this dataset on and off for 7 years.

[James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum]

Do institutional reforms change selection? DDD designs with 4 Progressive-era reforms: direct election of senators, women’s suffrage, secret ballot, party primaries. None reduced family background selection. Opening the system didn’t open the candidate pool.