iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Max Posch @maxposch.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

✨Did markets make Americans more cooperative❓🔍 ✅YES‼️ Between 1850 and 1920, the US became the largest and most integrated economy in the world 📶🌎 We show that this shift didn’t just move goods and affect prices—it fundamentally changed culture and behavior 🧵 👇 1/17

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

The main takeaway is that environment conducive to beneficial social learning promotes the creation of interdependent social networks, shaping cultural and psychological traits within a short period

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Finally, I examine the role of multiple confounding factors, competing mechanisms, and mediators, and provided suggestive evidence they did not play an important role. I also find that modernization is a potential mediator, but it can at most partially account for the impact

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Next, I explore selective out-migration. I document that local soil heterogeneity prompted farmers who who depended on social networks to migrate elsewhere. This finding is consistent with the DID results

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

(3) the adverse impact of soil heterogeneity was concentrated in locations where the learning potential was high . In other words, if there was little to learn to begin with, not being able to learn from neighbors did not matter

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

(2) the adverse impact of soil heterogeneity on farmers’ learning is robust to controlling for the learning potential

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

For both outcome I find that soil heterogeneity slowed farmers' learning and adaptation. Using GAEZ-FAO data I construct measures of the learning potential for the 2 outcomes, and show that (1) it positively affects learning,

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Second, I provide implicit evidence by studying production outcomes, focusing on a historical context in which American farmers learned and adjusted their practices—the adaptation of wheat cultivation to marginal environments

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Exploring channels, I first document the negative impact of soil heterogeneity on farmers’ agricultural learning and adaptation. First, I use an explicit indicator of learning—the rate of fertilizer adoption in farms

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I also explore the long-run impact on children’s communal attachment, and find that a child of a migrant to a soil-heterogeneous county was less likely to reside in it as an adult and less likely to marry a wife born in the destination state

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

In line with the social learning hypothesis, the impact is immediate and concentrated in the first few years after the farmers arrived at a new location, when learning was crucial and new social ties were likely being formed

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

The effect is concentrated on farmers with a prior communal disposition, which I interpret as indicating a pre-existing tendency to rely on social networks, leading to an "environmental mismatch" and high evolutionary pressure to adapt

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Using DID, I explore the short-run impact on in-group identity and document a decrease in communal identification among farmers who migrated to soil-heterogeneous counties compared to those who migrated to soil-homogeneous counties, with no impact on non-farmers

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I then proceed to present causal evidence on the formation of this association. I focus on 19th-century domestic migrants to explore selection and treatment effects. There's no evidence for selective in-migration based on prior farming experience or prior levels of communalism

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

The impact has weakened over time but remains evident today

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

First, I document a robust negative historical relationship between soil heterogeneity and close-knit communities with a county-level analysis and show that it is unlikely to be driven by selection on unobservables

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

In the appendix, I also use three indicators focusing on kinship tightness. A separate 🧵 on all the historical indicators, along with data links is now forthcoming on Bluesky 😀

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

the Intra-Community Marriage (ICM), capturing in-group bias, the Tight Norms Index (TNI), measuring the tightness of familial norms, and the Religious Homogeneity Index (RHI), capturing the tightness of religious identities and practices

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I also develop novel outcome variables measuring different cultural and psychological aspects of historically close-knit communities using census data: the Local Name Index (LNI), focusing on in-group identity and measured using children’s first names

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I use detailed and highly-granular geo-referenced soil data to construct a county-level Soil Heterogeneity Index (SHI), capturing the average dissimilarity of soil across neighboring locations in the county

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I provide the first empirical evidence supporting Shannon's (1945) Social Learning Hypothesis

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Shannon argued that farmers often tried to follow the advice of a local agricultural society or successful farmers and "got worse crops than before". Their inability to rely on social learning compelled them to rely only on themselves, fostering their "traditional individualism."

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

However, substantial local soil heterogeneity in certain areas implied that optimal farming practices were highly localized, thereby limiting the effectiveness of social learning. The American historian Fred Shannon argued in his 1945 book that this weakened communal ties

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

One possible strategy was "learning by doing" (i.e. individual trial and error). Another and potentially more efficient strategy was to engage in social learning and to build on the experience of their neighbors

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Historical background: during the 19th century millions of American farmers migrated to unfamiliar environments. They settled vast areas with no prior history of agriculture. Success required a tremendous amount of learning to discover optimal location-specific farming practices

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

❓Does environmental heterogeneity effects social structure and the strength of social ties? ❓ Celebrating the forthcoming of my paper, "Soil Heterogeneity, Social Learning, and the Formation of Close-knit Communities" in the JPE @JPolEcon 🥳 with a (long) 🧵

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Paul Novosad @novosad.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Fascinating paper on where 6000 global elites went to college. Billionaires, CEOs, heads of state, central bankers, etc. In a word: Harvard. Fully 10% of global elites went to Harvard. Elite US schools are over-represented (23% IvyPlus), but nobody comes close to Harvard. 🧵

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Great! Can you add me as well? Thanks 🙏🏻

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Guillaume Blanc @guillaumeblanc.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Going to give this website a try - with a new profile picture! Definitely feels like an econ bubble, but I guess that’s the point. Expect a thread on my newest work, Malthusian Migrations (with @romainwacziarg.bsky.social), soon! 🚨 www.guillaumeblanc.com/files/theme/...

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I would love to be added as well 🙏

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Magnus B Rasmussen @magnusrasmussen.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I made a quick starter pack on scholars working/having worked on historical political economy (wide definition). go.bsky.app/Hz9LmgL (please make [self]suggestions to improve the starter pack)

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

I would love to be added 🙏

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE) @sioecon.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

SIOE 2025 CALL FOR PAPERS Join us in Sydney, at UNSW, from 24-26 of August 2025! 🚨Submission deadline: January 15, 2025 Looking for individual papers or panel submissions. Call for papers / instructions here: call.sioe.org/call Questions? Email conference2025@sioe.org

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

I would love to be added to the starter pack, thanks! 🙏🏻

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Tamara (Tammy) McGavock @tamaramcgavock.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

What do Economics, Culture, and Religion have in common, you ask? More and more economists working on issues at their intersection! Here's a Starter Pack -- incomplete, please let me know if I've missed you! go.bsky.app/6Myd6F8

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Any room left for me? 🙏🏻

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Tzachi Raz @raztzachi.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I would love to be added. Thank you! 🙏

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Volha Charnysh @vcharnysh.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Great list! Here is a link to a related starter pack created by @pavisuri.bsky.social which includes political working in economic history (we call it HPE): bsky.app/starter-pack...

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Daniela Scur @danielascur.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

The call for papers for SIOE 2025 up!! Send us your best org papers, THIS YEAR IT IS IN SYDNEY! www.sioe.org/conference/2...

sioe.org

SIOE 2025 | SIOE

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

For the ppl new to #EconSky. Also if you're an econ history ish person, reply or dm to get added to the pack. I caught @econhist-allday.bsky.social but no one else too recently

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

NBER @nber.org · 09/11/2024

Studying England and Wales during the Second Industrial Revolution to examine how economic modernization affects group identity, from Vasiliki Fouka and Theo Serlin www.nber.org/papers/w33114

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Reposted by Tzachi Raz

Sascha O. Becker @essobecker.bsky.social · 05/11/2024

We are hiring at @warwickecon.bsky.social. Join the department where Oliver Hart and James Robinson studied, and teach the next generation of Nobel Laureates 😎 Apply here 👉 econjobmarket.org/positions/11... The deadline is Tuesday, November 18th. #EconJobMarket #EconSky

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