Labor-Market Dropouts and the Racial Wage Gap: 1940-1990

By Amitabh Chandra

American Economic Review, May 2000

The Strategy of Manipulating Conflict

By Sandeep Baliga and Tomas Sjöström

American Economic Review, October 2012

Two players choose hawkish or dovish actions in a conflict game with incomplete information. An "extremist," who can either be a hawk or a dove, attempts to manipulate decision making. If actions are strategic complements, a hawkish extremist increases th...

A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation, and Debt

By Marco Battaglini and Stephen Coate

American Economic Review, March 2008

This paper presents a political economy theory of fiscal policy. Policy choices are made by a legislature that can raise revenues via an income tax and by borrowing. Revenues can be used to finance a public good, whose value is stochastic, and pork-bar...

Optimal Project Selection Mechanisms

By Talia Bar and Sidartha Gordon

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, August 2014

We study mechanisms for selecting up to m out of n projects. Project managers' private information on quality is elicited through transfers. Under limited liability, the optimal mechanism selects projects that maximize some function of the project's obser...

Data Watch: Research Data in the Economics of Education

By Thomas S. Dee, William N. Evans, and Sheila E. Murray

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1999

One reason for the recent proliferation of empirical studies addressing the role of education in promoting individual and social welfare has been the emergence of high-quality, micro-level data on education. In this paper, we discuss three broad types of ...

The Diffusion of Energy Efficiency in Building

By Nils Kok, Marquise McGraw, and John M. Quigley

American Economic Review, May 2011

We analyze the diffusion of buildings certified for energy efficiency across US property markets. Using a panel of 48 metropolitan areas (MSAs) observed over the last 15 years, we model the geographic patterns and dynamics of building certification, relat...

Fear of Flying? Economic Analysis of Airline Safety

[Symposium: Airline Deregulation]

By Nancy L. Rose

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1992

The safety of the commercial airline industry has attracted considerable attention in the wake of airline deregulation, amid growing concerns that the historical superiority of U.S. jet carriers' safety records may have been linked to economic regulation ...

The Evolution of Medical Spending Risk

[Symposium: Household Risks]

By Jonathan Gruber and Helen Levy

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

How has the economic risk of health spending changed over time for U.S. households? We describe trends in aggregate health spending in the United States and how private insurance markets and public insurance programs have changed over time. We then presen...

Pay for Percentile

By Gadi Barlevy and Derek Neal

American Economic Review, August 2012

We propose an incentive scheme for educators that links compensation to the ranks of their students within comparison sets. Under certain conditions, this scheme induces teachers to allocate socially optimal levels of effort. Moreover, because this scheme...

The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain

By Janet Currie, Stefano DellaVigna, Enrico Moretti, and Vikram Pathania

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2010

We investigate how changes in the supply of fast food restaurants affect weight outcomes of 3 million children and 3 million pregnant women. Among ninth graders, a fast food restaurant within 0.1 miles of a school results in a 5.2 percent increase in obes...

Optimal Inattention to the Stock Market

By Andrew B. Abel, Janice C. Eberly, and Stavros Panageas

American Economic Review, May 2007

Changes in the Consumption, Income, and Well-Being of Single Mother Headed Families

By Bruce D. Meyer and James X. Sullivan

American Economic Review, December 2008

We investigate well-being changes for single mother headed families targeted by recent tax and welfare reforms. Measured income changes sharply differ from consumption changes. We examine disaggregated consumption, time use, and health insurance coverage....

In Defense of the NSF Economics Program

[Symposium: NSF Funding for Economists]

By Robert A. Moffitt

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2016

The NSF Economics program funds basic research in economics across all its disparate fields. Its budget has experienced a long period of stagnation and decline, with its real value in 2013 below that in 1980 and having declined by 50 percent as a percent ...

Efficient Pollution Regulation: Getting the Prices Right: Corrigendum (Mortality Rate Update)

By Nicholas Z. Muller and Robert Mendelsohn

American Economic Review, February 2012

Profits in the "New Trade" Approach to Trade Negotiations

By Ralph Ossa

American Economic Review, May 2012

I highlight two advantages of adopting a "new trade" approach to trade negotiations. First, it allows for a view of trade negotiations in which producer interests play a prominent role. And second, it lends itself naturally to quantitative analyses of non...

Temperature and Income: Reconciling New Cross-Sectional and Panel Estimates

By Melissa Dell, Benjamin F. Jones, and Benjamin A. Olken

American Economic Review, May 2009

Nation Building and Economic Growth

By Ellyn Creasey, Ahmed S. Rahman, and Katherine A. Smith

American Economic Review, May 2012

Over the past half-century there have been over three hundred instances of nation building initiatives, episodes where countries jointly give military and economic aid to a country embroiled in conflict. Despite the prevalence and expense of this foreign...

Are Tax Incentives for Charitable Giving Efficient? Evidence from France

By Gabrielle Fack and Camille Landais

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2010

This paper estimates the effect of tax incentives for charitable contributions in France. We focus on two reforms that increased the nonrefundable tax credit rate for charitable contributions by 32 percent. We use a difference-in-difference identification...

Long-Run Mortality Effects of Vietnam-Era Army Service: Evidence from Australia's Conscription Lotteries

By Peter Siminski and Simon Ville

American Economic Review, May 2011

We estimate the effect of Vietnam-era Army service on mortality, exploiting Australia's conscription lotteries for identification. We utilize population data on deaths during 1994-2007 and military personnel records. The estimates are identified by over 5...

Disability Insurance and the Great Recession

By Nicole Maestas, Kathleen J. Mullen, and Alexander Strand

American Economic Review, May 2015

The US Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program is designed to provide income support to workers who become unable to work because of a severe, long-lasting disability. In this study, we use administrative data to estimate the effect of labor m...