Selected Work in Progress
- “Black Wealth and Opportunity after Emancipation: Freedman Bank Depositors and their Descendants after the 1874 Collapse,” with Daniel Keniston.
- “Historical Census of Manufactures Data Portal: www.CMFdata.org,” with Anders Humlum and Martin Rotemberg, launched November 2025.
- After Shocks: Adaptation and Economic Growth in History’s Laboratory
Working Papers
- “Gaining Steam: Incumbent Lock-in and Entrant Leapfrogging,” with Shanon Hsuan-Ming Hsu, Anders Humlum, and Martin Rotemberg, September 2025. Revised and resubmitted, Journal of Political Economy. Online Appendix.
- “The Social Construction of Race during Reconstruction,” with Anjali Adukia, Daniel Keniston, and Benjamin Lualdi, June 2025. Revise and resubmit, Journal of Political Economy.
- “Identifying Agglomeration Shadows: Long-run Evidence from Ancient Ports,” with Guy Michaels and Ferdinand Rauch, June 2025. Reject and resubmit, Review of Economics and Statistics.
Published and Forthcoming Papers
- Hornbeck, Richard and Trevon Logan. 2025. “One Giant Leap: Emancipation and Aggregate Economic Gains,” Review of Black Political Economy, Forthcoming.
- Gozen, Ruveyda, Richard Hornbeck, Anders Humlum, and Martin Rotemberg. 2025. “Historical Differences in Female-Owned Manufacturing Establishments: The United States, 1850-1880,” AEA Papers and Proceedings 115: 483-88.
- Hornbeck, Richard, and Martin Rotemberg. 2024. “Growth Off the Rails: Aggregate Productivity Growth in Distorted Economies,” Journal of Political Economy, 132(11)3547-3602. Lead Article.
- Hornbeck, Richard, and Enrico Moretti. 2024. “Estimating Who Benefits From Productivity Growth: Local and Distant Effects of City Productivity Growth on Wages, Rents, and Inequality,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 106(3)587-607. Lead Article.
- Hornbeck, Richard. 2023. “Dust Bowl Migrants: Environmental Refugees and Economic Adaptation,” Journal of Economic History, 83(3)645-675. Lead Article.
- Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo, and Richard Hornbeck. 2018. “How Much do Existing Borrowers Value Microfinance? Evidence from an Experiment on Bundling Microcredit and Insurance.” Economica, 85(340): 671-700. Lead Article.
- Hornbeck, Richard, and Daniel Keniston. 2017. “Creative Destruction: Barriers to Urban Growth and the Great Boston Fire of 1872.” American Economic Review 107(6): 1365-1398. Lead Article.
- Chaney, Eric, and Richard Hornbeck. 2016. “Economic Dynamics in the Malthusian Era: Evidence from the 1609 Spanish Expulsion of the Moriscos.” Economic Journal 126(594): 1404-1440.
- Donaldson, Dave, and Richard Hornbeck. 2016. “Railroads and American Economic Growth: A “Market Access” Approach.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 131(2): 799-858.
- Hornbeck, Richard, and Pinar Keskin. 2015. “Does Agriculture Generate Local Economic Spillovers? Short-run and Long-run Evidence from the Ogallala Aquifer.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 7(2) 192-213.
- Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo, and Richard Hornbeck. 2014. “Bundling Health Insurance and Microfinance in India: There Cannot be Adverse Selection if There is No Demand.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 104(5): 291-297.
- Hornbeck, Richard, and Suresh Naidu. 2014. “When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South.” American Economic Review 104(3): 963-990.
- Hornbeck, Richard, and Pinar Keskin. 2014. “The Historically Evolving Impact of the Ogallala Aquifer: Agricultural Adaptation to Groundwater and Drought.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6(1): 190-219.
- Hornbeck, Richard. 2012. “The Enduring Impact of the American Dust Bowl: Short- and Long-run Adjustments to Environmental Catastrophe.” American Economic Review 102(4): 1477-1507.
- Hornbeck, Richard. 2012. “Nature versus Nurture: The Environment’s Persistent Influence through the Modernization of American Agriculture.” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 102(3): 245-249.
- Zwane, Alix, et al. 2011. “Being surveyed can change later behavior and related parameter estimates.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(5): 1821-1826.
- Greenstone, Michael, Richard Hornbeck, and Moretti, Enrico. 2010. “Identifying Agglomeration Spillovers: Evidence from Winners and Losers of Large Plant Openings.” Journal of Political Economy 118(3): 536-598.
- Hornbeck, Richard. 2010. “Barbed Wire: Property Rights and Agricultural Development.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 125(2): 767-810.