Dr. Lukas Althoff

The Legacy of Slavery

A central theme in Lukas Althoff's work is examining how the legacy of slavery and subsequent discriminatory institutions continue to shape racial inequality in America. In his paper with Hugo Reichardt, “Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery,” Mr. Althoff employs new methods to identify the enslavement status of Black Americans' ancestors and track their economic outcomes over time. His research reveals that Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved until the Civil War still face significant gaps in education, income, and wealth compared to descendants of Black Americans who were free earlier. Crucially, this persistent inequality is primarily attributed to the fact that most families enslaved until the Civil War gained freedom in states that later adopted the most oppressive Jim Crow regimes, severely hindering their economic progress for nearly a century after emancipation.

Lukas Althoff studies the historical roots and future paths of inequality, primarily focusing on the United States but with implications that extend beyond its borders. By combining quasi-experimental research designs, large individual-level datasets, and innovative data linkage methods, Mr. Althoff explores the causes and consequences of general economic inequality as well as unequal economic opportunities across race, gender, and place. Looking ahead, he aims to continue investigating the long-run effects of institutions, policies, and technologies on economic inequality by leveraging innovative methods to uncover and combine massive datasets. In recent work, he has begun exploring the potentially unequal impact that artificial intelligence may have on the value of human capital across society.

Lukas Althoff is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research. He will join Stanford University’s Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in 2025. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2023 and holds a master’s degree in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (London School of Economics) as well as two bachelor’s degrees in Economics (University of Munich) and Computer Science & Finance (Technical University of Munich).