In a recent paper in the Journal of Economics Perspectives, Philip Levine and Melissa Kearney use some novel techniques and data on miscarriages to ask whether teenage mums have children because they are poor or are they poor because they have children (their paper is available here and you can read Slate's coverage here). Interestingly, their evidence seems to indicate that teenage girls have children because they live in impoverished circumstances with poor future prospects. This, of course, raises questions about the future prospects of the offspring of teenage mothers. What role can public policy play in dealing with this issue? Does rising inequality and reduced social mobility make it harder for poor teenagers to escape the poverty trap?
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.