In a Small Moment: Class Size and Moral Hazard in the Italian Mezzogiorno

By Joshua D. Angrist, Erich Battistin, and Daniela Vuri

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2017

Instrumental variables (IV) estimates show strong class-size effects in Southern Italy. But Italy's Mezzogiorno is distinguished by manipulation of standardized test scores as well as by economic disadvantage. IV estimates suggest small classes increase m...

Political Credit Cycles: The Case of the Eurozone

[Symposium: The Euro]

By Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Luis Garicano, and Tano Santos

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2013

We study the mechanisms through which the entry into the euro delayed, rather than advanced, key economic reforms in the eurozone periphery and led to the deterioration of important institutions in these countries. We show that the abandonment of the re...

Putting Firms into Optimal Tax Theory

By Wojciech Kopczuk and Joel Slemrod

American Economic Review, May 2006

Correspondence

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1996

The Role of Human Capital in Earnings Differences between Black and White Men

[Symposium: The Economic Status of African-Americans]

By June O'Neill

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1990

This article examines the factors underlying the differential in earnings between black men and white men, with a focus on the role of human capital. Since 1940, successive generations of black men entering the labor force have been increasingly more educ...

Theories of the Mind

By Isabelle Brocas and Juan D. Carrillo

American Economic Review, May 2008

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1989

The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Contested Exchange and the Revival of Political Economy

By Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1993

Recent developments in microeconomic theory have shown that the self-interested behavior underlying neoclassical theory is artificially truncated: it depicts a charmingly Victorian but Utopian world in which conflicts abound but a handshake is a handshake...

The Economics of Online Crime

[Symposium: Internet Economics]

By Tyler Moore, Richard Clayton, and Ross Anderson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2009

This paper will focus on online crime, which has taken off as a serious industry since about 2004. Until then, much of the online nuisance came from amateur hackers who defaced websites and wrote malicious software in pursuit of bragging rights. But now c...

Labor-Market Dropouts and the Racial Wage Gap: 1940-1990

By Amitabh Chandra

American Economic Review, May 2000

The Strategy of Manipulating Conflict

By Sandeep Baliga and Tomas Sjöström

American Economic Review, October 2012

Two players choose hawkish or dovish actions in a conflict game with incomplete information. An "extremist," who can either be a hawk or a dove, attempts to manipulate decision making. If actions are strategic complements, a hawkish extremist increases th...

A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation, and Debt

By Marco Battaglini and Stephen Coate

American Economic Review, March 2008

This paper presents a political economy theory of fiscal policy. Policy choices are made by a legislature that can raise revenues via an income tax and by borrowing. Revenues can be used to finance a public good, whose value is stochastic, and pork-bar...

Optimal Project Selection Mechanisms

By Talia Bar and Sidartha Gordon

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, August 2014

We study mechanisms for selecting up to m out of n projects. Project managers' private information on quality is elicited through transfers. Under limited liability, the optimal mechanism selects projects that maximize some function of the project's obser...

Data Watch: Research Data in the Economics of Education

By Thomas S. Dee, William N. Evans, and Sheila E. Murray

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1999

One reason for the recent proliferation of empirical studies addressing the role of education in promoting individual and social welfare has been the emergence of high-quality, micro-level data on education. In this paper, we discuss three broad types of ...

The Diffusion of Energy Efficiency in Building

By Nils Kok, Marquise McGraw, and John M. Quigley

American Economic Review, May 2011

We analyze the diffusion of buildings certified for energy efficiency across US property markets. Using a panel of 48 metropolitan areas (MSAs) observed over the last 15 years, we model the geographic patterns and dynamics of building certification, relat...

Fear of Flying? Economic Analysis of Airline Safety

[Symposium: Airline Deregulation]

By Nancy L. Rose

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1992

The safety of the commercial airline industry has attracted considerable attention in the wake of airline deregulation, amid growing concerns that the historical superiority of U.S. jet carriers' safety records may have been linked to economic regulation ...

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...

Pay for Percentile

By Gadi Barlevy and Derek Neal

American Economic Review, August 2012

We propose an incentive scheme for educators that links compensation to the ranks of their students within comparison sets. Under certain conditions, this scheme induces teachers to allocate socially optimal levels of effort. Moreover, because this scheme...

The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain

By Janet Currie, Stefano DellaVigna, Enrico Moretti, and Vikram Pathania

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2010

We investigate how changes in the supply of fast food restaurants affect weight outcomes of 3 million children and 3 million pregnant women. Among ninth graders, a fast food restaurant within 0.1 miles of a school results in a 5.2 percent increase in obes...

Optimal Inattention to the Stock Market

By Andrew B. Abel, Janice C. Eberly, and Stavros Panageas

American Economic Review, May 2007