Business, Government & the International Economy

- 2025
- Working Paper
Immigration Restrictions and Natives’ Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from the 1920s U.S. Quota Acts

By: James J. Feigenbaum, Yi-Ju Hung, Marco Tabellini and Monia Tomasella

We study the effects of immigration restrictions on intergenerational mobility of U.S.-born men in the United States. We link U.S.-born sons observed in 1900, 1920, and 1940 full-count Censuses to their fathers, and construct a measure of county-level exposure to the 1920s immigration acts, which sharply curtailed immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. Exploiting this policy-induced variation, we find that the quotas reduced intergenerational mobility among U.S.-born white men, but had no adverse effect for Black men. Family background played an important role: among whites, the decline was larger for sons of poorer fathers, while those from richer families limited these losses by moving to higher-opportunity areas. Evidence from the 1940 Census suggests that the main results reflect occupational downgrading and lower productivity within jobs, rather than reduced human capital investment.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Immigration Restrictions and Natives’ Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from the 1920s U.S. Quota Acts

By: James J. Feigenbaum, Yi-Ju Hung, Marco Tabellini and Monia Tomasella

We study the effects of immigration restrictions on intergenerational mobility of U.S.-born men in the United States. We link U.S.-born sons observed in 1900, 1920, and 1940 full-count Censuses to their fathers, and construct a measure of county-level exposure to the 1920s immigration acts, which sharply curtailed immigration from Southern and...
- 2025
- Working Paper
Citizens’ Commitment to Democracy: Easier Said Than Done?

By: Hernán Carvajal, Loreto Cox and Natalia Garbiras-Díaz

Does citizens’ stated commitment to democracy predict their willingness to defend it? We address this question by leveraging a unique setup tracking democratic attitudes surrounding Peru’s 2022 (failed) self-coup. Our analysis combines an original two-wave pre-coup panel measuring explicit support for democracy through direct questions and implicit support through votes for hypothetical undemocratic candidates in a conjoint experiment, with a third wave capturing responses to Pedro Castillo’s self-coup attempt. We show that condemnation of the coup was not unanimous and Castillo voters were more forgiving, adjusting their democratic standards and ceasing to view shutting down Congress as undemocratic. Crucially, stated commitment matters: explicit survey responses strongly predict condemnation of the coup, as strongly as having voted for Castillo, while the conjoint measure predicts it only weakly. Robustness analyses using Colombian data provide external validity. Our findings provide methodological and substantive insights into how to anticipate citizens’ democratic commitments under stress.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Citizens’ Commitment to Democracy: Easier Said Than Done?

By: Hernán Carvajal, Loreto Cox and Natalia Garbiras-Díaz

Does citizens’ stated commitment to democracy predict their willingness to defend it? We address this question by leveraging a unique setup tracking democratic attitudes surrounding Peru’s 2022 (failed) self-coup. Our analysis combines an original two-wave pre-coup panel measuring explicit support for democracy through direct questions and...
- September 2025
- Case
The Indonesia Investment Authority: A New Breed of Sovereign Wealth Fund

By: Mattias Fibiger, Sari Wahyuni, Olga Karnas and Permata Wulandari
- September 2025
- Case
The Indonesia Investment Authority: A New Breed of Sovereign Wealth Fund

By: Mattias Fibiger, Sari Wahyuni, Olga Karnas and Permata Wulandari

About the Unit

The BGIE Unit conducts research on, and teaches about, the economic, political, social, and legal environment in which business operates. The Unit includes scholars trained in economics, political science, and history; in its work, it draws on perspectives from all three of these disciplines.

The following demonstrates one way of classifying the approaches the Unit takes to learning and teaching.

The Unit examines the “rules” and policies established by government and other non-business institutions that affect business in the United States.
The Unit turns to history to understand the origins of today’s business environment as well as some of the alternatives that have emerged from time to time.
The Unit examines other countries’ business environments and their historical development.
The BGIE group is deeply interested in the impact of globalization and the way rules are emerging to govern international economic transactions as globalization proceeds.

Recent Publications

Immigration Restrictions and Natives’ Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from the 1920s U.S. Quota Acts

By: James J. Feigenbaum, Yi-Ju Hung, Marco Tabellini and Monia Tomasella

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

We study the effects of immigration restrictions on intergenerational mobility of U.S.-born men in the United States. We link U.S.-born sons observed in 1900, 1920, and 1940 full-count Censuses to their fathers, and construct a measure of county-level exposure to the 1920s immigration acts, which sharply curtailed immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. Exploiting this policy-induced variation, we find that the quotas reduced intergenerational mobility among U.S.-born white men, but had no adverse effect for Black men. Family background played an important role: among whites, the decline was larger for sons of poorer fathers, while those from richer families limited these losses by moving to higher-opportunity areas. Evidence from the 1940 Census suggests that the main results reflect occupational downgrading and lower productivity within jobs, rather than reduced human capital investment.

Citation

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Emigration and Long-Run Economic Development: Evidence from the Italian Mass Migration

By: Nicola Fontana, Marco Manacorda, Gianluca Russo and Marco Tabellini

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

In this paper, we study the long-run effects of emigration on economic development. We consider the case of historical mass migration from Italy between 1880 and 1920, when more than 10 million people left the country. We exploit variation in access to information about opportunities abroad to derive an instrument for outmigration at the municipality level. We find that areas with higher historical emigration are poorer, less educated, and less densely populated at the turn of the 21st century. These effects emerged early and persisted, as emigration led to sustained depopulation that, combined with declining fertility and lower human capital investment, constrained the structural transformation from agriculture to manufacturing and services.

Keywords: Emigration; Long-run Economic Development

Citation

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Citizens’ Commitment to Democracy: Easier Said Than Done?

By: Hernán Carvajal, Loreto Cox and Natalia Garbiras-Díaz

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

Does citizens’ stated commitment to democracy predict their willingness to defend it? We address this question by leveraging a unique setup tracking democratic attitudes surrounding Peru’s 2022 (failed) self-coup. Our analysis combines an original two-wave pre-coup panel measuring explicit support for democracy through direct questions and implicit support through votes for hypothetical undemocratic candidates in a conjoint experiment, with a third wave capturing responses to Pedro Castillo’s self-coup attempt. We show that condemnation of the coup was not unanimous and Castillo voters were more forgiving, adjusting their democratic standards and ceasing to view shutting down Congress as undemocratic. Crucially, stated commitment matters: explicit survey responses strongly predict condemnation of the coup, as strongly as having voted for Castillo, while the conjoint measure predicts it only weakly. Robustness analyses using Colombian data provide external validity. Our findings provide methodological and substantive insights into how to anticipate citizens’ democratic commitments under stress.

Keywords: Government and Politics; Public Opinion; Attitudes; Peru

Citation

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Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act

By: Andrea Bernini, Giovanni Facchini, Marco Tabellini and Cecilia Testa

October 2025 |
Article |
Journal of Political Economy

How did southern whites respond to the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA)? Leveraging newly digitized data on county-level voter registration by race between 1956 and 1980, and exploiting pre-determined variation in exposure to the federal intervention, we document that the VRA increases both Black and white political participation. Consistent with the VRA triggering white counter-mobilization, the surge in white registrations is concentrated in counties where African Americans represent a political threat. Counter-mobilization leads to a short run increase in support for racially conservative candidates, and to a slow-down in local public spending salient to Black Americans, such as public sector employment and education.

Keywords: Government Legislation; Race; Behavior; Voting; Prejudice and Bias

Citation

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Purchase

Idea Factories

By: Caroline M. Elkins and Peter Litzow

September 2025 |
Module Note |
Faculty Research

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Copyright; Creativity; Culture; Transformation; Leading Change; Power and Influence; Trust; Civil Society or Community; Motivation and Incentives; Status and Position; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Public Administration Industry

Citation

The Business of Ideas

By: Caroline M. Elkins and Peter Litzow

September 2025 |
Course Overview Note |
Faculty Research

Keywords: Journals and Magazines; Newspapers; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Copyright; Creativity; Culture; Transformation; Technology Adoption; Innovation Strategy; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Power and Influence; Trust; Civil Society or Community; Journalism and News Industry; Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Citation

The Indonesia Investment Authority: A New Breed of Sovereign Wealth Fund

By: Mattias Fibiger, Sari Wahyuni, Olga Karnas and Permata Wulandari

September 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

KKR: A New Chapter for Simon & Schuster

By: Caroline M. Elkins and Peter Litzow

September 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

In fall 2023, global investment firm KKR acquired “Big 5” book publisher Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion. The transaction was met with mixed opinions. For some, it was high time that the declining book publishing industry trimmed its fat and improved profitability; for others, it seemed like an impending disaster, with Simon & Schuster potentially facing massive debt, pressures to publish only blockbuster titles, and/or the threat of a sale of authors’ rights to an AI company. Pete Stavros, global co-head of private equity at KKR at the time, summed up the firm’s dilemma: “[there] needs to be a balance of ‘we’re bringing important works into the world’ [and] ‘we’re trying to be a profitable, growing business.’” How should KKR think about rendering Simon & Schuster more profitable, while also considering its role – more broadly – as a public good?