Growth, Adoption, and Use of Mobile E-Commerce

By Liran Einav, Jonathan Levin, Igor Popov, and Neel Sundaresan

American Economic Review, May 2014

We document some early effects of how mobile devices might change Internet and retail commerce. We present three main findings based on an analysis of eBay's mobile shopping application and core Internet platform. First, early adopters of mobile e-commerc...

Stochastic Choice: An Optimizing Neuroeconomic Model

By Michael Woodford

American Economic Review, May 2014

A model is proposed in which stochastic choice results from noise in cognitive processing rather than random variation in preferences. The mental process used to make a choice is nonetheless optimal, subject to a constraint on available information-proces...

Benefits of Neuroeconomic Modeling: New Policy Interventions and Predictors of Preference

By Ian Krajbich, Bastiaan Oud, and Ernst Fehr

American Economic Review, May 2014

Neuroeconomics strives to use knowledge from neuroscience to improve models of decisionmaking. Here we introduce a biologically plausible, drift-diffusion model that is able to jointly predict choice behavior and response times across different choice env...

Rational Attention and Adaptive Coding: A Puzzle and a Solution

By Camillo Padoa-Schioppa and Aldo Rustichini

American Economic Review, May 2014

Adaptive Coding is the property of the brain to adjust its response to statistical properties of the environment. Its effect is an improved discrimination among signals under the constraints on the dynamic range of its response. It can thus be considered ...

(Dis)organization and Success in an Economics MOOC

By Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

American Economic Review, May 2014

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) present the potential to deliver high quality education to a large number of students. But they suffer from low completion rates. This paper identifies disorganization as a factor behind failure to complete a MOOC. Stud...

The Industrial Organization of Online Education

By Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok

American Economic Review, May 2014

Online education has flexibility and cost advantages over in-class teaching and these advantages will grow with improvements in information technology. We consider likely market structures given that the quality aspects of online education exhibit endogen...

Equalizing Superstars: The Internet and the Democratization of Education

By Daron Acemoglu, David Laibson, and John A. List

American Economic Review, May 2014

Internet-based educational resources are proliferating rapidly. One concern associated with these (potentially transformative) technological changes is that they will be disequalizing—as many technologies of the last several decades have been—...

The Economics of Online Postsecondary Education: MOOCs, Nonselective Education, and Highly Selective Education

By Caroline M. Hoxby

American Economic Review, May 2014

I consider economically sustainable online postsecondary education, including massive open online courses (MOOCs). The analysis suggests that MOOCs will be financially sustainable substitutes for some non-selective postsecondary education, but there are s...

Discounting and Growth

By Christian Gollier

American Economic Review, May 2014

In a growing economy, the discount rate to evaluate a long-term investment is the minimum rate of expected return that compensates for the increased intergenerational inequalities. Because the growth rate is uncertain, there is a precautionary argument in...

Declining Discount Rates

By Maureen L. Cropper, Mark C. Freeman, Ben Groom, and William A. Pizer

American Economic Review, May 2014

We ask whether the US government should replace its current discounting practices with a declining discount rate schedule, as the United Kingdom and France have done, or continue to discount the future at a constant exponential rate. We present the theore...

Fat Tails and the Social Cost of Carbon

By Martin L. Weitzman

American Economic Review, May 2014

At high enough greenhouse gas concentrations, climate change might conceivably cause catastrophic damages with small but non-negligible probabilities. If the bad tail of climate damages is sufficiently fat, and if the coefficient of relative risk aversion...

On Not Revisiting Official Discount Rates: Institutional Inertia and the Social Cost of Carbon

By Cass R. Sunstein

American Economic Review, May 2014

Within the federal government, official decisions are a product of both substantive judgments and institutional constraints. With respect to discounting, current practice is governed by OMB Circular A-4 and the 2010 and 2013 technical support documents of...

Selected International Aspects of Carbon Taxation

By Charles E. McLure Jr.

American Economic Review, May 2014

Disparate commitments to reduce GHG emissions create demands for border carbon adjustments (BCAs) to prevent negative competitive effects and carbon leakage. BCAs that accomplish economic objectives and are administratively feasible, WTO-legal, and politi...

The Costs and Consequences of Clean Air Act Regulation of CO2 from Power Plants

By Dallas Burtraw, Josh Linn, Karen Palmer, and Anthony Paul

American Economic Review, May 2014

US climate policy is unfolding under the Clean Air Act. Mobile source and construction permitting regulations are in place. Most important, EPA and the states will determine the form and stringency of the regulations for power plants. Various approaches w...

Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax

By Donald B. Marron and Eric J. Toder

American Economic Review, May 2014

A carbon tax is a promising tool for discouraging the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In principle, a well-designed tax could reduce the risk of climate change, minimize the cost of emissions reductions, encourage innovation in low-car...

How Effective Are US Renewable Energy Subsidies in Cutting Greenhouse Gases?

By Brian C. Murray, Maureen L. Cropper, Francisco C. de la Chesnaye, and John M. Reilly

American Economic Review, May 2014

The federal tax code provides preferential treatment for the production and use of renewable energy. We report estimates of the subsidies' effects on greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions developed in a recent National Research Council (NRC) Report. Due to lac...

Powering Up China: Income Distributions and Residential Electricity Consumption

By Maximilian Auffhammer and Catherine D. Wolfram

American Economic Review, May 2014

Current forecasts suggest that the vast majority of growth in energy demand will come from the developing world, and that China will play a major part in that growth. This paper presents evidence suggesting that the shape of the income distribution, which...

The Economic Cost of Global Fuel Subsidies

By Lucas W. Davis

American Economic Review, May 2014

By 2015, global oil consumption will reach 90 million barrels per day. In part, this high level of consumption reflects the fact that many countries provide subsidies for gasoline and diesel. This paper examines global fuel subsidies using the latest avai...

Why Are Power Plants in India Less Efficient Than Power Plants in the United States?

By Hei Sing (Ron) Chan, Maureen L. Cropper, and Kabir Malik

American Economic Review, May 2014

India's coal-fired generating capacity doubled between 1990 and 2010 and currently accounts for 70 percent of electricity produced. Despite this, thermal efficiency at state-owned coal-fired power plants in India is significantly lower than at plants in t...

Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting: Philadelphia, PA, January 4, 2014

By Peter L. Rousseau

American Economic Review, May 2014