Sweeping up Gangs: The Effects of Tough-on-Crime Policies from a Network Approach

By Magdalena Domínguez

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2026

Globally, gang proliferation is fought primarily through sweeps. This paper uses a difference-in-differences strategy to examine their causal impact on crime for arrested individuals and their peers. Analysis focuses on the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona,...

Invisible Wounds: How Mental Disability Benefits Shape Veteran Well-Being

By David Silver and Jonathan Zhang

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2026

We study impacts of VA disability compensation on the health and well-being of the large and rapidly growing population of veterans claiming mental disorders. We leverage quasi-random assignment of veterans to medical examiners with varying assessing tend...

Connections during Democratic Transitions: Insights from the Political Purge in Post-WWII France

By Toke S. Aidt, Jean Lacroix, and Pierre-Guillaume Méon

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2026

We examine how connections shaped transitional justice during France's post-WWII democratic transition. Parliamentarians who had supported the Vichy regime faced a two-stage purge process involving two courts. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, w...

Hacked to Pieces? The Effects of Ransomware Attacks on Hospitals and Patients

By Hannah Neprash, Claire McGlave, and Sayeh Nikpay

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2026

As cybercriminals increasingly target health care, hospitals face the growing threat of ransomware attacks. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that prevents users from accessing electronic systems and demands a ransom to restore access. We create ...

Cross-State Strategic Voting

By Gordon B. Dahl, Joseph Engelberg, Runjing Lu, and William Mullins

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2026

We estimate that 3.1 percent of US voters, or 6.1 million individuals, were registered to vote in two states in 2020, opening up the possibility for them to choose where to vote. Double registrants are concentrated in the wealthiest zip codes and respond ...

Social Preferences over Ordinal Outcomes

By Sandro Ambuehl and B. Douglas Bernheim

American Economic Review

We study social preferences in settings where someone who chooses on behalf of others knows how those individuals rank the available options but may lack cardinal information concerning those comparisons. Contrary to majoritarian principles, most people...

Plata y Plomo: How Higher Wages Expose Politicians to Criminal Violence

By Massimo Pulejo and Pablo Querubín

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2026

What is the effect of politicians' wages on corruption in the presence of criminal groups that use both bribes and violence? With a regression discontinuity design and three distinct proxies for corruption, we show that better-paid Italian politicians are...

Scoring the Behavioral Economics of Crime: Reflections on Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence

By Robert J. Sampson

Journal of Economic Literature

In Unforgiving Places, Jens Ludwig makes a strong claim for the behavioral economics of crime, scoring it a knockout when pitted against conventional wisdom. Focusing on gun violence, he proposes a unifying explanation that draws on disciplines bey...

Slava Mikhed on entrepreneurship and age

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How do younger and older entrepreneurs respond to extra wealth?

Lovepreet Singh on public spending and long-run growth

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How do public spending and investment impact the development of regional economies?

Juliet-Nil Uraz on public legal assistance

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How does losing access to legal aid affect welfare?

Andrew Kao on party bans

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How effective are political party bans?

Hui (Grace) Wang on student loans and labor supply

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How do US student loans affect household decisions to work?

Kathrin Durizzo on corruption and health care

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Does improving patients’ knowledge reduce petty corruption by healthcare providers in developing countries?

Enel Shirinli on colonialism and trust

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How did colonial policies affect institutional trust and out-group bias among ethnic groups?

Naixin Zhang on the politics of industrial policy

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How does the political power of congressional representatives affect the allocation of industrial policies?

Lucy Wang on health IT diffusion

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How does health information technology adoption affect healthcare access?

Matthew McKetty on tourism in developing economies

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Do expansions in a nation’s tourism industry improve the welfare of its citizens?

Front Matter

American Economic Review, February 2026

Evaluating the Impact of Urban Transit Infrastructure: Evidence from Bogotá's TransMilenio

By Nick Tsivanidis

American Economic Review, February 2026

This paper estimates the effects of improving public transit infrastructure on city structure and welfare. It develops a quantitative urban model with multiple worker groups and transit modes, and derives a special case yielding sufficient statistics for ...