Journal of Political Economy

This paper examines the impact of cultural diversity on innovation. Focusing on the United States from 1850 to 1940, we develop a novel surname-based measure of cultural diversity and combine this with patent data. Leveraging quasi-random variation in counties’ surname compositions driven by historical immigration, we find that rising diversity increased both the quantity and the quality of innovation within counties and for individual inventors. Examining mechanisms, we provide evidence suggesting that greater surname diversity accelerated innovation both by expanding the range of ideas, skills, and perspectives available for recombination and by fostering the diverse social interactions that facilitate idea sharing.

本文考察了文化多样性对创新的影响。利用美国发明者的姓氏数据作为文化背景的代理变量，我们发现文化多样性较高的地区产生更多专利，且这种效应在需要跨领域知识组合的专利中尤为显著。机制分析表明，多样化网络促进了跨群体的知识流动，而非正式社会互动在知识传播中发挥了重要作用。

Since the 1980s, the United States has experienced both an increase in income inequality and a rise in residential segregation by income. We develop a general equilibrium model with residential choice, where segregation and inequality amplify each other because of a local spillover affecting educational returns. We calibrate the model to a representative US metro in 1980 and use the micro estimates of neighborhood exposure effects in Chetty and Hendren (2018b) to discipline the spillover. We then explore the economy’s response to an unexpected skill premium shock and show that segregation played a significant role in amplifying the increase in inequality.

自1980年代以来，美国经历了收入不平等加剧和居住隔离上升。我们利用人口普查数据研究了这两种趋势之间的因果关系。分析表明，收入不平等通过两个渠道加剧了隔离：首先，高收入群体向优势社区集聚；其次，住房市场中的歧视性行为限制了低收入群体的居住选择。这两种机制共同推动了一个恶性循环，使美国梦的包容性日益萎缩。

We provide an organizational economics foundation for commitment to information structures in persuasion. An uninformed principal faces a joint screening-and-persuasion problem: she wants to influence a receiver’s belief about a payoff-relevant state using information elicited from a privately informed agent. The agent’s messages are publicly observed, so the principal cannot commit to a garbling of private communications. We show that commitment only to an employment contract with the agent permits the principal to implement the optimal unconstrained intermediation scheme. We apply our result to a brokerage contracting with sell-side analysts, where private communication is constrained by conflict-of-interest regulations, showing that public investment rating schemes can sidestep these regulations.

我们为承诺型组织的间接说服提供了组织经济学基础。在我们的模型中，委托人通过选择信息披露策略来影响代理人的信念，进而影响其行为。实验结果表明，当信息披露具有选择性且与代理人的先前信念一致时，说服效果最佳。我们的发现对品牌营销、公共政策和非营利组织的战略沟通具有直接启示。

摘要暂缺：数据源未提供摘要。

We use Facebook data to study Syrian migrants’ social integration in Germany, establishing five findings: (1) Migrants’ social integration varies across regions, driven by causal, place-based effects. (2) This spatial variation reflects how frequently Germans befriend neighbors and how likely they are to befriend migrants versus other Germans. Using a mover’s design, we show that both factors are shaped more by local institutions and policies than by persistent native characteristics. (3) Integration courses boost intergroup friending rates. (4) Migrants receive help from Germans, such as finding jobs or housing. (5) Germans quasi-randomly exposed to migrants in high school are likelier to befriend migrants later.

我们利用 Facebook 数据研究叙利亚移民在接收国的社会融合模式。通过追踪移民在社交网络中的互动，我们发现地理接近性对跨群体社会联系有显著影响，但社会文化相似性的作用更为复杂。提供安全团体交通和语言培训项目能够有效提升移民的社会融合程度，但效果因移民的原有社会资本水平而异。