Research and Publications

This article explores the construction of 'tribe' as a socio-political unit of global history, revealing an evolution of ideas and practices, both of which actively sought to limit, by co-opting, the opportunities and agency of Indigenous groups. The category of 'tribe' was, and is, co-constitutive of Euro-American empire. Euro-American empires created two interlinked dynamics in the social history of the 'tribe'. One was external, a process of categorization to facilitate and effect conquest and integration. The other was internal, a process of reimagining social relationships through which locals adapted to the threats and opportunities of empire. By mapping British approaches to ethnic Pashtuns and the state of Afghanistan onto imperial engagement with 'tribal' communities worldwide - and highlighting both similarities and differences with the North American examples more prominent in the existing literature - global patterns of 'tribalism', as defined by Euro-Americans, become apparent. The article illustrates some - but certainly not all - of the impacts of being labelled 'tribal' while demonstrating ways that areas and societies seemingly peripheral to each other became interconnected because of shared Euro-American terminology and practice.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) promises to deliver $270 billion in tax incentives starting in 2023, expanding on the existing $18 billion in federal income tax credits for clean energy investments. Despite the continued investment in clean energy tax credits, not all communities have historically benefited equally from these programs. This work investigates the presence of disparities in the residential energy tax credit (RETC) program, which was recently expanded under the IRA. We use quantile regression models to explore disparities in the participation in and average value received from the RETCs across demographics. Because tax credit programs result in second-tier benefits such as job creation, we compare the relationship between RETC participation and the presence of clean jobs across demographics. We find that rural communities, renter-occupied communities, and communities of color are disproportionately participating less in the RETC. However, we observe that when renter-occupied or communities of color do participate, they see higher average value comparatively as well as more clean jobs associated per tax return with the RETC. While disparities across demographic groups persist in participation in the RETC, these findings suggest that renter-occupied or communities of color see more benefits when they do participate.

The growth in economic sanctions has been matched by a surge in scholarly research. This article reviews the current state of scholarship on economic sanctions to see where the literature has advanced since Baldwin's Economic Statecraft - and where there is need for further research. Over the past few decades, sanctions scholarship has made its greatest strides in investigating the effects and effectiveness of economic coercion attempts. This vein of research suggests that economic coercion is more effective than previously believed - but at the same time, the policy externalities of sanctions are far greater than previously understood. There remain many fruitful areas of research. Scholars need to consider how to better measure the deterrent effects of economic sanctions over time. Claims that there are different national styles of economic statecraft need to be tested to determine whether these styles are enduring or ephemeral. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, international relations scholars need to consider the systemic implications of increased sanctioning behavior. Scholars need to assess when and how sanctions affect the broader global political economy.

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>This paper uses exogenous variation in sleep induced by sunset time to present the first human capital estimates of (i) the effects of child sleep from the developing world and (ii) the long-run effects of child sleep in any context. Later sunset reduces children’s sleep: when the sun sets later, children go to bed later but fail to compensate by waking up later. Sleep-deprived children study less and increase nap time and indoor leisure activities. Short-run sleep loss decreases children’s test scores. Chronic sleep deficits translate into fewer years of education and lower primary and middle school completion rates among school-age children.</jats:p>

Giving birth during adolescence is linked to a variety of negative outcomes, including poor health and well-being. Girls who have been displaced by conflict are at increased risk for becoming young mothers. While prevalence rates and health outcomes have been documented, rarely have the complex personal narratives of early motherhood been examined from the perspectives of mothers themselves, particularly in the Global South. This study relies on in-depth, inductive, narrative analysis of qualitative interviews with 67 young mothers and 10 relatives in South Sudan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) who had been displaced by conflict. This study provides deep insights into the contributing circumstances and consequences of young motherhood from sexual and reproductive health and well-being perspectives, with additional insights on mothering in humanitarian crisis.

This study investigates the determinants of trading activity in the U.S. corporate bond market, focusing on the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and macroeconomic announcements. Employing the General-to-Specific (Gets) Autometrics methodology, we identify distinct behavioral responses between retail and institutional investors to SAD, noting a significant impact on retail trading volumes but not on institutional trading or bond returns. This discovery extends the understanding of behavioral finance within the context of bond markets, diverging from established findings in equity and Treasury markets. Additionally, our analysis delineates the influence of macroeconomic announcements on trading activities, offering new insights into the market’s reaction to economic news. This study’s findings contribute to the broader literature on market microstructure and behavioral finance, providing empirical evidence on the interplay between psychological factors and macroeconomic information flow within corporate bond markets. By addressing these specific aspects with rigorous econometric techniques, our research enhances the comprehension of trading dynamics in less transparent markets, offering valuable perspectives for academics, investors, risk managers, and policymakers.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) brought human rights into global salience like never before and inspired a proliferation of human rights norms worldwide. However, its birth in the wake of human
rights abuses from the Holocaust minimizes equally appalling atrocities from before World War II, including slavery, colonialism, and earlier genocides. In
commemorating seventy-five years of the UDHR, the international community can reflect on the past of the Declaration and plan for its future. In looking ahead, the international community must examine its responses to prior human rights abuses, such as slavery and racism, while acknowledging that there is much to be done to rectify the abuses of the past.