Does Affirmative Action Work? Caste, Gender, College Quality, and Academic Success in India

By Surendrakumar Bagde, Dennis Epple, and Lowell Taylor

American Economic Review, June 2016

Public policy in modern India features affirmative action programs intended to reduce inequality that stems from a centuries-old caste structure and history of disparate treatment by gender. We study the effects of one such affirmative action program: an ...

Heterogeneity in Returns to Wealth and the Measurement of Wealth Inequality

By Andreas Fagereng, Luigi Guiso, Davide Malacrino, and Luigi Pistaferri

American Economic Review, May 2016

Lacking a long time series on the assets of the very wealthy, Saez and Zucman (2015) use US tax records to obtain estimates of wealth holdings by capitalizing asset income from tax returns. They document marked upward trends in wealth concentration. We us...

The Internet and the Investor

[Symposium: E-Commerce]

By Brad M. Barber and Terrance Odean

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2001

The Intellectual Legacy of Progressive Economics: A Review Essay of Thomas C. Leonard's Illiberal Reformers

By Marshall I. Steinbaum and Bernard A. Weisberger

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2017

Thomas Leonard's 2016 book Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era argues that exclusionary views on eugenics, race, immigration, and gender taint the intellectual legacy of progressive economics and eco...

Mafia in the Ballot Box

By Giuseppe De Feo and Giacomo Davide De Luca

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2017

We study the impact of organized crime on electoral results, analyzing in detail the national parliamentary elections in Sicily for the period 1946-1992. We document the significant support given by the Sicilian mafia to the Christian Democratic Party whe...

Global Biofuels: Key to the Puzzle of Grain Market Behavior

[Symposium: Agriculture]

By Brian Wright

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2014

In the last half-decade, sharp jumps in the prices of wheat, rice, and corn, which furnish about two-thirds of the calorie requirements of mankind, have attracted worldwide attention. These price jumps in grains have also revealed the chaotic state of e...

Experimental Testing of Intrinsic Preferences for NonInstrumental Information

By Kfir Eliaz and Andrew Schotter

American Economic Review, May 2007

Preferential Trade Liberalization: The Traditional Theory and New Developments

By Arvind Panagariya

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2000

This paper begins by systematically developing the "static" theory of preferential trade areas (PTAs) and showing that neither a large volume of initial intra-union trade nor geographical proximity can serve as a guide to welfare enhancing PTAs. The paper...

Toward a Theory of Regulation for Developing Countries: Following Jean-Jacques Laffont's Lead

By Antonio Estache and Liam Wren-Lewis

Journal of Economic Literature, September 2009

The efficient operation and expansion of infrastructures in developing countries is crucial for growth and poverty reduction. However, recent reforms aimed at improving the performance of these sectors have had limited success. Evidence suggests that, ...

After Airline Deregulation and Alfred E. Kahn

By Nancy L. Rose

American Economic Review, May 2012

Among Alfred E. "Fred" Kahn's many accomplishments, none is better remembered than his pivotal role in deregulation of the US airline industry. Kahn's commitment to marry core microeconomic principles with institutional analysis, willingness as Chairman o...

Report of the Treasurer

By Peter L. Rousseau

American Economic Review, May 2016

Anomalies: The Ultimatum Game

By Richard H. Thaler

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1988

This paper discusses simple ultimatum games, two-stage bargaining ultimatum games, and multistage ultimatum games. Finally, I discuss ultimatums in the market. Any time a monopolist (or monopsonist) sets a price (or wage), it has the quality of an ultimat...

Patent Remedies

By Carl Shapiro

American Economic Review, May 2016

Since the Supreme Court's eBay decision in 2006, the U.S. has employed a hybrid patent remedy system that mixes property and liability rules. When the patent owner and the infringer are competitors, the courts typically issue a permanent injunction requir...

A Skeptic's View of Global Budget Caps

[Symposium: Health Care Reform]

By James M. Poterba

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This brief paper explores the likely effects of government-imposed global budget caps, such as those in the Clinton administration proposal, on health care spending. It argues that health reform proposals that guarantee universal access to a basic package...

Personalized Risk Assessments in the Criminal Justice System

By Sharad Goel, Justin M. Rao, and Ravi Shroff

American Economic Review, May 2016

In an effort to bring greater efficiency, equity, and transparency to the criminal justice system, statistical risk assessment tools are increasingly used to inform bail, sentencing, and parole decisions. We examine New York City's stop-and-frisk program,...

Can Tailored Communications Motivate Environmental Volunteers? A Natural Field Experiment

By Omar Al-Ubaydli and Min Lee

American Economic Review, May 2011

Volunteering is a significant component of economic activity, especially for environmental organizations. Environmental organizations that rely on volunteers communicate with them using a variety of media, such as newsletters. This is a field experiment i...

The Distortionary Effects of Incentives in Government: Evidence from China's "Death Ceiling" Program

By Raymond Fisman and Yongxiang Wang

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2017

We study a 2004 program designed to motivate Chinese bureaucrats to reduce accidental deaths. Each province received a set of "death ceilings" that, if exceeded, would impede government officials' promotions. For each category of accidental deaths, we obs...

Why Has US Policy Uncertainty Risen since 1960?

By Scott R. Baker, Nicholas Bloom, Brandice Canes-Wrone, Steven J. Davis, and Jonathan Rodden

American Economic Review, May 2014

We consider two classes of explanations for the rise in policy-related economic uncertainty in the United States since 1960. The first stresses growth in government spending, taxes, and regulation. A second stresses increased political polarization and i...

Natural Disasters, Economic Development, and Humanitarian Aid

By David Strömberg

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2007

Natural disasters are one of the major problems facing humankind. Between 1980 and 2004, two million people were reported killed and five billion people cumulatively affected by around 7,000 natural disasters, according to the dataset maintained by the Ce...

Interview with Edmund S. Phelps

By Howard R. Vane and Chris Mulhearn

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2009

Edmund S. Phelps has been McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University in New York City, New York, since 1982 and director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University's Earth Institute since 2001. In 2006, he was award...