HCEO

Is access to political power truly open and equal in the US? HCEO member Eric Chyn and colleagues find evidence over two centuries shows that "children from wealthy and privileged households have been substantially overrepresented in elected office."

That shapes policy, they find. "Districts represented by higher status candidates are less likely to support pro-tax positions in roll-call voting," the authors write in a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.

The Persistence of Power: How Family Origins Shape Political Representation and Policy Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

Australia's social media ban for those under age 16 has been ineffective, and the reasons are social. Only a quarter of 14- and 15-year olds surveyed are complying with the law, because they believe their peers are still active on banned platforms. "Sustaining high compliance requires two ingredients: the share of compliers must be high enough and those who comply must find it preferable to continue complying. The current ban achieves neither," HCEO members Leonardo Bursztyn, Angela Duckworth and colleagues write in a new NBER paper detailing their findings.

Why Bans Fail: Tipping Points and Australia's Social Media Ban Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.