Shaping the Habits of Teen Drivers

By Timothy J. Moore and Todd Morris

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2024

We show that a targeted law can modify teens' risky behavior. We examine the effects of an Australian intervention banning first-year drivers from driving late at night with multiple peers, which had accounted for one-fifth of their traffic fatalities. Us...

Optimal Internality Taxation of Product Attributes

By Andreas Gerster and Michael Kramm

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2024

This paper explores how a benevolent policymaker should optimally tax (or subsidize) product attributes when consumers are behaviorally biased. We demonstrate that market choices are informative about biases, which can be exploited for targeting biased co...

Rural Roads, Farm Labor Exits, and Crop Fires

By Teevrat Garg, Maulik Jagnani, and Hemant K. Pullabhotla

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2024

Even as policymakers seek to encourage economic development by addressing misallocation due to frictions in labor markets, the associated production externalities—such as air pollution—remain unexplored. Using a regression discontinuity design, we sho...

Government Transfers and Votes for State Intervention

By Giuseppe Albanese, Guido de Blasio, and Lorenzo Incoronato

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2024

Government transfers might have long-lasting consequences on electoral outcomes. We study a regional policy implemented in Italy over the second half of the twentieth century and leverage variation in transfers to show that parties promoting more state in...

Competitive Bidding in Drug Procurement: Evidence from China

By Shengmao Cao, Lisa Xuejie Yi, and Chuan Yu

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2024

We study the equilibrium effects of introducing competitive bidding in drug procurement. In 2019, China introduced a competitive bidding program where drug companies bid for a prespecified procurement quantity in nine provinces. Using a difference-in-diff...

The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality

By Sherajum Monira Farin, Lauren Hoehn-Velasco, and Michael F. Pesko

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2024

Legal abortion has recently been suggested as an essential health care service. In this study, we consider whether abortion legalization over 1969–1973 improved women's health as measured by maternal mortality. Our event study results indicate that lega...

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

Are Opportunity Zones an Effective Place-Based Policy?

[Symposium: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017]

By Kevin Corinth and Naomi Feldman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

We evaluate the Opportunity Zones provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, focusing on its targeting and effects on investment and resident outcomes. The policy allowed substantial discretion for state governors to designate Opportunity Zones that were n...

Seeking the "Missing Women" of Economics with the Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge

[Symposium: Expanding the Appeal of Economics]

By Tatyana Avilova and Claudia Goldin

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

Economics is among the most popular undergraduate majors, especially in top colleges and universities. However, even at the best research universities and liberal arts colleges men outnumber women by two to one, and overall there are about 2.5 males to ...

Valuing Identity in the Classroom: What Economics Can Learn from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education

[Symposium: Expanding the Appeal of Economics]

By Sergio Barrera, Susan Sajadi, Marionette Holmes, and Sarah Jacobson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

Economics faces stubborn underrepresentation of minoritized identity groups. Economics instructors also largely use antiquated instructional methods. We leverage the literature from the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educati...

Lessons for Expanding the Share of Disadvantaged Students in Economics from the AEA Summer Program at Michigan State University

[Symposium: Expanding the Appeal of Economics]

By Lisa D. Cook and Christine Moser

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

Since 1974, the American Economic Association Summer Training Program has provided training and mentoring to students from disadvantaged backgrounds in economics. The aim of the program is to encourage and prepare these students to apply to PhD programs...

What Went Wrong with Federal Student Loans?

By Adam Looney and Constantine Yannelis

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

At a time when the returns to college and graduate school are at historic highs, why do so many students struggle with their student loans? The increase in aggregate student debt and the struggles of today's student loan borrowers can be traced to chang...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Timothy Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

Sweeping Changes and an Uncertain Legacy: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

[Symposium: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017]

By William G. Gale, Jeffrey L. Hoopes, and Kyle Pomerleau

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 introduced sweeping changes to individual and corporate taxation. We summarize the major provisions, trace the origins of the Act, and compare it to previous tax changes. We also examine the effects on the govern...

The US Individual Income Tax: Recent Evolution and Evidence

[Symposium: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017]

By Jon Bakija

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

This paper assesses the current state of the US federal individual taxation, and considers its recent evolution, with an emphasis on the changes to the individual income tax enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), and evidence on their impacts...

Lessons from the Biggest Business Tax Cut in US History

[Symposium: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017]

By Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

We assess the business provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the biggest corporate tax cut in US history. We draw five lessons. First, corporate tax revenue fell by 40 percent due to the lower rate and more generous expensing. Second, firms with...

US International Corporate Taxation after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

[Symposium: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017]

By Kimberly A. Clausing

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

The root dilemma that informs the past, present, and future of US international taxation is the tension between two desiderata: protecting the corporate tax base from erosion and ensuring the competitiveness of US multinational firms in the world econom...

On the Economics of Extinction and Possible Mass Extinctions

By M. Scott Taylor and Rolf Weder

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2024

Human beings' domination of the planet has not been kind to many species. This is to be expected. Humans have radically altered natural landscapes, harvested heavily from the ocean, and altered the climate in an unprecedented way. Recent concerns over t...

License to die

[Research Highlight]

December 01, 2021

What impact does driving have on teenage mortality and risky behavior?

AEA Member Announcements: Annual Elections and Other Announcements

[News]

April 12, 2024

View member announcements from April 22, 2024.