After Airline Deregulation and Alfred E. Kahn

By Nancy L. Rose

American Economic Review, May 2012

Among Alfred E. "Fred" Kahn's many accomplishments, none is better remembered than his pivotal role in deregulation of the US airline industry. Kahn's commitment to marry core microeconomic principles with institutional analysis, willingness as Chairman o...

Report of the Treasurer

By Peter L. Rousseau

American Economic Review, May 2016

Anomalies: The Ultimatum Game

By Richard H. Thaler

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1988

This paper discusses simple ultimatum games, two-stage bargaining ultimatum games, and multistage ultimatum games. Finally, I discuss ultimatums in the market. Any time a monopolist (or monopsonist) sets a price (or wage), it has the quality of an ultimat...

Patent Remedies

By Carl Shapiro

American Economic Review, May 2016

Since the Supreme Court's eBay decision in 2006, the U.S. has employed a hybrid patent remedy system that mixes property and liability rules. When the patent owner and the infringer are competitors, the courts typically issue a permanent injunction requir...

A Skeptic's View of Global Budget Caps

[Symposium: Health Care Reform]

By James M. Poterba

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This brief paper explores the likely effects of government-imposed global budget caps, such as those in the Clinton administration proposal, on health care spending. It argues that health reform proposals that guarantee universal access to a basic package...

Personalized Risk Assessments in the Criminal Justice System

By Sharad Goel, Justin M. Rao, and Ravi Shroff

American Economic Review, May 2016

In an effort to bring greater efficiency, equity, and transparency to the criminal justice system, statistical risk assessment tools are increasingly used to inform bail, sentencing, and parole decisions. We examine New York City's stop-and-frisk program,...

Can Tailored Communications Motivate Environmental Volunteers? A Natural Field Experiment

By Omar Al-Ubaydli and Min Lee

American Economic Review, May 2011

Volunteering is a significant component of economic activity, especially for environmental organizations. Environmental organizations that rely on volunteers communicate with them using a variety of media, such as newsletters. This is a field experiment i...

The Distortionary Effects of Incentives in Government: Evidence from China's "Death Ceiling" Program

By Raymond Fisman and Yongxiang Wang

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2017

We study a 2004 program designed to motivate Chinese bureaucrats to reduce accidental deaths. Each province received a set of "death ceilings" that, if exceeded, would impede government officials' promotions. For each category of accidental deaths, we obs...

Why Has US Policy Uncertainty Risen since 1960?

By Scott R. Baker, Nicholas Bloom, Brandice Canes-Wrone, Steven J. Davis, and Jonathan Rodden

American Economic Review, May 2014

We consider two classes of explanations for the rise in policy-related economic uncertainty in the United States since 1960. The first stresses growth in government spending, taxes, and regulation. A second stresses increased political polarization and i...

Natural Disasters, Economic Development, and Humanitarian Aid

By David Strömberg

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2007

Natural disasters are one of the major problems facing humankind. Between 1980 and 2004, two million people were reported killed and five billion people cumulatively affected by around 7,000 natural disasters, according to the dataset maintained by the Ce...

Interview with Edmund S. Phelps

By Howard R. Vane and Chris Mulhearn

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2009

Edmund S. Phelps has been McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University in New York City, New York, since 1982 and director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University's Earth Institute since 2001. In 2006, he was award...

Part D Formulary and Benefit Design as a Risk-Steering Mechanism

By Dana P. Goldman, Geoffrey F. Joyce, and William B. Vogt

American Economic Review, May 2011

Medicare Part D relies upon drug plan competition. Plans have enormous scope to design benefits and to set premiums, but they may not charge differential premiums based on risk. We use the formulary and benefit design of all Medicare prescription drug pla...

Conditional Cash Transfers, Public Provision of Private Goods, and Income Redistribution

By Firouz Gahvari and Enlinson Mattos

American Economic Review, March 2007

This paper examines the role of cash transfers as a screening device when combined with in-kind transfers. It shows that linking in-kind to cash transfers makes first-best redistribution possible despite the government's inability to tell rich and poor in...

Report of the Secretary

By Peter L. Rousseau

American Economic Review, May 2016

Simultaneous Model of Innovation, Secrecy, and Patent Policy

By Klaus Kultti, Tuomas Takalo, and Juuso Toikka

American Economic Review, May 2006

Appliance Ownership and Aspirations among Electric Grid and Home Solar Households in Rural Kenya

By Kenneth Lee, Edward Miguel, and Catherine Wolfram

American Economic Review, May 2016

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are active debates about whether increases in energy access should be driven by investments in electric grid infrastructure or small-scale "home solar" systems (e.g., solar lanterns and solar home systems). We summarize the re...

Development from Representation? A Study of Quotas for the Scheduled Castes in India

By Francesca Refsum Jensenius

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2015

This paper estimates the constituency-level development effects of quotas for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in India, using a unique dataset of development indicators for more than 3,100 state assembly constituencies in 15 Indian states in 1971 and 2001. Mat...

Drug Innovations and Welfare Measures Computed from Market Demand: The Case of Anti-cholesterol Drugs

By Abe Dunn

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2012

The pharmaceutical industry is characterized as having substantial investment in R&D and a large number of new product introductions, which poses special problems for price measurement caused by the quality of drug products changing over time. This paper...

Comments: Robert Solow, Murray Wiedenbaum, V. V. Chari, and Patrick J. Kehoe

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2008

The Future Information Infrastructure in Economics

[Symposium: Electronic Journals in Economics]

By William L. Goffe and Robert P. Parks

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1997

This paper is a first look at how the information infrastructure for economists will change with the arrival of the Internet. While paper has long been used for the flow of information in the profession, computer networks are starting to supplement it and...