Where we investigate puzzling questions…
Peer-Reviewed Publications
[Published Version][Earlier SSRN Version]
Abstract: This paper explores the contemporaneous effects of Confederate monuments dedicated in the Post-Reconstruction South. I combine monument, election, and census data to create an election-year panel dataset of former Confederate counties between 1878–1912, then exploit the temporally staggered and geographically distributed dedication of monuments using a generalized difference-in-differences design. I find that monuments caused increases in Democratic Party vote share and decreases in voter turnout, with less robust decreases in Black population share. I find some evidence that more intense monument-building is associated with a decrease in Black lynchings. I also find varying effects based on the era of monument dedication, the intensity of monument-building, and monument characteristics. To address potential mechanisms, I present evidence that monuments were associated with increased use of famous Confederate names for children and show that decreases in voter turnout occurred exclusively in areas with larger Black population shares. Overall, my results suggest monuments promoted a distorted view of Civil War history that primarily persuaded southern whites, but also contributed to Black political suppression. The findings have implications for current debates over Confederate monuments in the United States.
Presentations: Yale Econ History Grad Student Conference, GMU, PCS, VAE, ACEI, Troesken Memorial Conference, EHA (Poster), SEA, ASSA, GMU CDS Seminar
Working Papers
(joint with Noel D. Johnson and Andrew Thomas)
[Current Draft][Slides]
Abstract: We leverage plausibly exogenous variation in mortality from the Black Death (1347-52) across European cities to estimate the causal impact of market size on early print adoption. Using the universe of data from the Universal Short Title Catalogue we create a database linking early European printed material to historical city populations. We find that cities whose populations were more heavily impacted by the Black Death were less likely to be early adopters of the press and printed fewer unique book editions. We also provide evidence that beyond own-city mortality there were also spatial spillovers from the Black Death shock.
Presentations: World Economic History Congress, World Cliometric Conference, Markets & Society Conference 2023
(joint with Jacob Hall)
[May 2026 Draft]
Abstract: We investigate the impact of language policy on language choice, linguistic standardization, and national identity. In 1539, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made French the official administrative language of France. Using a geographic difference-in-discontinuities design exploiting the French border, we show that Villers-Cotterêts caused a dramatic shift away from Latin toward French in the larger print market and homogenized printed French. We then show that the ordinance fostered French national identity, as reflected in book titles, and that towns with larger ordinance-induced shifts toward vernacular printing expressed stronger national identity on the eve of the French Revolution.
Presentations: PCS, Virtual Workshop in HPE, Markets & Society, UE, SEA 2025
(joint with Noel D. Johnson)
Abstract: Between 1450 and 1650 European print transformed from a Mainz craft producing about 3,000 Latin editions per decade into a market of nearly 800,000 editions across seven major languages and 1,300 cities. Did this expansion of the market for books and ideas change the way knowledge was organized and did that reorganization in turn shape city growth? Using title-level embeddings of the Universal Short Title Catalogue and a gravity-style city-period market access panel for six languages (Latin, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish), we find that within-city increases in market access make a city’s print output more topically diverse, less distinct from the European centroid, and more topically even. This pattern is consistent with monopolistic competition under spatial product differentiation rather than with Smithian specialization. The useful-knowledge share of this compositional response carries growth-relevant content beyond market access, predicting subsequent 50-year city population growth, consistent with Mokyr’s Industrial Enlightenment thesis operating at the city level through trans-European scholarly print.
Papers in Progress
Suppression or Triumph? The Public Choice Determinants of Confederate Monument Construction
Political Emails
Plague, Print, and Persecution: The Role of Print Media in Shaping Social Responses to Epidemics in Early-Modern Europe (joint with Noel D. Johnson)
The Word of God or Man? Bibles and the Vernacular Shift
