The Institute for Economic Development at Boston University                                                                    Research Review Spring 2000

Eli Berman’s current research touches on development from a number of unconventional angles. He is investigating how manufacturing technologies absorbed by developing countries have increased productivity and demand for education, repeating the process that the developed world has undergone since the late 1970s. Another project explores the effect of radical Islam on fertility and how subsidies to radical religious groups can reverse fertility transitions. Other work includes an investigation (with Zaur Rzakhanov) of whether immigrants move for the sake of their children, and what affect the resulting self-selection has on fertility. In collaboration with Kevin Lang and Erez Siniver he is also studying the complementarity of skills and language in the labor productivity of immigrants.

Maristella Botticini’s recent work concerns the determinants of dowries, sex ratios, intergenerational transfers, and human capital. “Sex Ratios in Renaissance Florence: Missing Women or Too Many Men?” joint with Aldo Rustichini, seeks to explain the puzzling sex ratio (120 men per 100 women) in early Renaissance Florence, which suggests a “missing women” problem common to many contemporary developing countries. The idea is to disentangle two possible factors that can explain this bias: differential care for male and female children, or a rational stopping rule according to which parents stop producing children when they reach the “optimal” number of sons. “Competitive Tax Farming” joint with Zvika Neeman, examines conditions under which a system of revenue

collection through competitive bidding for the position of tax farmers can deliver optimal outcomes. They test their model by using historical evidence from the Roman Empire, medieval Italy and England, and early modern France. “Human Capital and Jewish Economic History” joint work with Zvi Eckstein, aims to explain the successful economic performance of Jews in many places and times by applying a human capital approach. They are constructing a large dataset on the economic and social profile of Jewish communites in Europe and the Middle East from ancient times to 1900, and plan to compare their size, wealth, and human capital with the population of the cities where they resided.

Following the completion of his book, “Startup Factories: High Performance Organizations and Regional Advantage”, Peter Doeringer is extending his analysis of high performance workplace organization to Europe, where he is working with a French team on a comparative study of France, the UK, and the United States. He is also continuing a second project with a group of European colleagues on the economic organization of quick response supply networks in the garment industries of France, England, and the United States. Doeringer served during the past two years as the Research Director for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Blue Ribbon Commission on Older Workers, which just released a major report outlining policies for assisting older workers and promoting economic growth in Massachusetts.