Poverty

States of Nature and States of Mind: A generalized theory of decision-making

Canonical economic agents act so as to maximize a single, representative, utility function. However, there is accumulating evidence that heterogeneity in thought processes may be an important determinant of individual behavior. This paper …

The Education Trap: Could a grades-focussed educational system be perpetuating poverty in advanced economies?

Existing economic theory does not adequately explain the very low educational investment of disadvantaged children in advanced economies. We propose a new model of educational investment that endogenously separates disadvantaged children into a …

Education as a Participation Game: An explanation for educational under-investment

Individuals who under-invest in education experience negative outcomes along most measurable dimensions. Although such under-investment is common, it is not adequately explained by existing economic theory. We disaggregate the canonical educational …