David N. Weil

About

David N. Weil is the James and Merryl Tisch Professor of Economics at Brown University and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. His work has extensively covered various aspects of economic growth, including the empirical determinants of income variation among countries, the contribution of health improvements to growth, the geographic determinants of development, the measurement of income inequality, the accumulation of physical capital, international technology transfer, population growth, and the use of satellite observation as a measurement tool. Weil has authored a textbook on growth that has been translated into six languages. In addition to his research on economic growth, Weil has written on demographic and health economics topics such as the economic impacts of malaria and salt iodization, population aging, Social Security, the gender wage gap, retirement, and the relationship between demographics and house prices. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990.

Research topics

• Economics
• Business
• Demographic economics
• Labour economics
• Econometrics

Selected publications

• The Effect of Increasing Human Capital Investment on Economic Growth and Poverty: A Simulation Exercise

  Journal of Human Capital · 2020-01-30 · 69 citations

  articleSenior author

  We examine the dynamic responses of income and poverty to increased investment in the human capital of new cohorts of workers, using a quantitative macroeconomic model with realistic demography. Higher investment leads to significant improvements, although phase-in takes considerable time. Gains are largest in poor countries. We argue in the context of our model that investing in people is more cost effective than investing in physical capital as a means to achieve specified income or poverty go…

  PublisherDOI

• Spillover Effects from Voluntary Employer Minimum Wages

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2021-10-01 · 44 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Low unionization rates, a falling real federal minimum wage, and outsourcing have hampered wage growth in the low-wage sector in the US. In recent years, a number of private employers have opted to institute or raise company-wide minimum wages for their employees, sometimes in response to public pressure. To what extent do wage-setting changes at major employers spill over to other employers, and what are the broader labor market effects of these policies? In this paper, we study recent minimum…

  PublisherDOI

• Population and Economic Growth

  2024-09-02 · 15 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Measuring Productivity

  2024-09-02 · 6 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Are Big Cities Important for Economic Growth?

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  Cities are often described as engines of economic growth.We assess this statement quantitatively.We focus on two mechanisms: a static agglomeration effect that makes production in bigger cities more efficient, and a dynamic effect whereby urban scale impacts the productivity of invention, which in turn determines the speed of technological progress for the country as a whole.Using estimates of these effects from the literature and MSA-level patent and population data since 1900, we ask how much…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Emilio Depetris-Chauvín

  124 shared

• Ṣebnem Kalemli‐Özcan

  65 shared

• J. Vernon Henderson

  63 shared

• Adam Storeygard

  Tufts University

  62 shared

• John Τ. Dunlop

  45 shared

• Tim Squires

  42 shared

• Janice H. Hammond

  39 shared

• Frederick H Abernathy

  37 shared

Education

• PhD / Public Policy, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

  Harvard University

  1987

• Master of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government

  Harvard University

  1985

• Bachelor of Science, NY School of Industrial and Labor Relations

  Cornell University

  1983

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