The Effects of Peer Group Heterogeneity on the Production of Human Capital at West Point

By David S. Lyle

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

Understanding how heterogeneity in peer group composition affects academic attainment has important implications for how schools organize students in group settings. The random assignment of cadets to companies at West Point affords an opportunity to i...

Teaching Students and Teaching Each Other: The Importance of Peer Learning for Teachers

By C. Kirabo Jackson and Elias Bruegmann

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

Using longitudinal elementary school teacher and student data, we document that students have larger test score gains when their teachers experience improvements in the observable characteristics of their colleagues. Using within-school and within-teac...

Consumption Responses to In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from the Introduction of the Food Stamp Program

By Hilary W. Hoynes and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

Economists have strong theoretical predictions about how in-kind transfers, such as providing vouchers for food, impact consumption. Despite the prominence of the theory, there is little empirical work on responses to in-kind transfers, and most existi...

Iodine Deficiency and Schooling Attainment in Tanzania

By Erica Field, Omar Robles, and Maximo Torero

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

Cognitive damage from iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) has important implications for economic growth through its effect on human capital. To gauge the magnitude of this influence, we evaluate the impact on schooling of reductions in IDD from intensiv...

How Large Are Non-Budget-Constraint Effects of Prices on Demand?

By Ori Heffetz and Moses Shayo

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

Elementary consumer theory assumes prices affect demand only because they affect the budget constraint (BC). Alternative models, and some evidence, suggest prices can affect demand through other, non-BC channels (e.g., by signaling quality). This paper...

In Pursuit of Balance: Randomization in Practice in Development Field Experiments

By Miriam Bruhn and David McKenzie

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simulations comparing these methods. We find that many papers do not describe the randomization in detail, implying that better reporting is needed. Our simulat...

Front Matter

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2009

The Rising Instability of U.S. Earnings

[Symposium: Household Risks]

By Peter Gottschalk and Robert Moffitt

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

The inequality of earnings and of family incomes in the United States has increased since the late 1970s. The large rise in earnings inequality between the 1970s and the 1990s could reflect either a rise in disparity of permanent incomes, a rise in earnin...

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...

Changing Household Financial Opportunities and Economic Security

[Symposium: Household Risks]

By Karen E. Dynan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

Households have experienced an expansion of financial opportunities over the past several decades. Expanded financial opportunities, such as the democratization of credit and new lending approaches, can yield benefits in terms of household economic securi...

Job Loss and the Fraying of the Implicit Employment Contract

[Symposium: Household Risks]

By Kevin F. Hallock

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

Most workers have one employment contract that is explicit and another one that is implicit. The explicit employment contract specifies working hours, compensation, and job tasks. The implicit contract involves expectations about the extent to which the e...

The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges

[Symposium: College Admissions]

By Caroline M. Hoxby

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

Over the past few decades, the average college has not become more selective: the reverse is true, though not dramatically. People who believe that college selectivity is increasing may be extrapolating from the experience of a small number of colleges su...

Playing the Admissions Game: Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition

[Symposium: College Admissions]

By John Bound, Brad Hershbein, and Bridget Terry Long

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

Gaining entrance to a four-year college or university, particularly a selective institution, has become increasingly competitive over the last several decades. We document this phenomenon and show how it has varied across different parts of the student ab...

Optimal Taxation in Theory and Practice

By N. Gregory Mankiw, Matthew Weinzierl, and Danny Yagan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

The optimal design of a tax system is a topic that has long fascinated economic theorists and flummoxed economic policymakers. This paper explores the interplay between tax theory and tax policy. It identifies key lessons policymakers might take from the ...

Mortality Inequality

By Sam Peltzman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

The paper describes how changes in the inequality of lifetimes have contributed to changes in the social distribution of welfare. I address the following questions: How can we measure inequality of lifetimes? How has this kind of inequality changed over t...

The Liabilities and Risks of State-Sponsored Pension Plans

By Robert Novy-Marx and Joshua D. Rauh

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

As of December 2008, state governments had approximately $1.94 trillion set aside in pension funds for their employees. How does the value of these assets compare to the present value of states' pension liabilities? Just as future Social Security and Medi...

Field Experiments in Class Size from the Early Twentieth Century

By Jonah Rockoff

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

A vast majority of adults believe that class size reductions are a good way to improve the quality of public schools. Reviews of the research literature, on the other hand, have provided mixed messages on the degree to which class size matters for student...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Timothy Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

The Shrinking Medicare Part D Benefit: Comment

By Carl Johnston

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2009