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High Corruption Income in Ming and Qing China
(Department of Economics, 2005)
We develop an economic model that explains historical data on government corruption in Ming and Qing China. In our model, officials' extensive powers result in corrupt income matching land's share in output. We estimate corrupt income to be between...
Optimal Commodity Taxation When Land and Structures Must Be Taxed at the Same Rate
(Department of Economics, 2005)
We show that the optimal property tax rate rises with the ratio of land rents to structure and land development costs. California's high ratio of income to property tax revenue and the distribution of Federal housing ...
Explaining Public Attitudes on State Legislative Professionalism
(Department of Economics, 2008)
Scholars have long argued that state legislative professionalism, or the provision of staff, legislator salary, and session length, has behavioral incentives for legislators and implications for legislative capacity. Scant ...
The Welfare Caseload, Economics Growth and Welfare-to-Work Policies: An Analysis of Five Urban Areas
(Department of Economics, 2000)
This paper uses quarterly data on AFDC (later TANF) recipients in five major urban areas to examine the relative importance of policy reform and economic conditions in explaining the dynamics of the welfare caseload and the employment experiences...
Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform
(Department of Economics, 2003)
This paper explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state. We find that although...
Campaign Finance Laws and Political Efficacy: Evidence From the States
(Department of Economics, 2005)
The decline of political efficacy and trust in the United States is often linked to the rise of money in politics. Both the courts and reform advocates justify restrictions on campaign donations and spending as necessary ...
What's in a Name?
(Department of Economics, 2004)
Plenty. This paper analyzes two broad questions: Does your first name matter? And how did you get your first name anyway? Using data from the National Opinion Research Center's (NORC's) General Social Survey, including access to respondent's first...
Environmental Policy Attitudes: Issues, Geographical Scale, and Political Trust
(Department of Economics, 2008)
Objectives. This article examines environmental policy attitudes, focusing on the differences in preferences across issue type (i.e., pollution, resource preservation) and geographical scale (i.e., local, national, global). ...
The Impact of Welfare Reform on Leaver Characteristics, Employment and Recidivism
(Department of Economics, 2002)
recidivism comparing cohorts of leavers prior to and after welfare reform. We find that after welfare reform leavers are much more likely to be working, have higher total earnings, work for employers with similar characteristics, and are less likely to return...
Estimating Estate-Specific Price-to-Rent Ratios in Shanghai and Shenzhen: A Bayesian Approach
(Department of Economics, 2010)
in the same estate. We find that the price-to-rent ratios tend to be higher for low-end properties. We discuss economic explanations for the phenomenon and the policy implications....
The Effects of Campaign Finance Laws on Turnout, 1950-2000
(Department of Economics, 2006)
Scholars have proposed many routes by which campaign finance laws may impact turnout. For instance, laws restricting campaign spending may decrease mobilization, resulting in lower turnout. Alternatively, such laws might ...
Inequality, Group Cohesion, and Public Good Provision: An Experimental Analysis
(Department of Economics, 2004)
Recent studies argue that inequality reduces group cohesiveness and dampens support for expenditures on public goods and social programs. In light of competing theoretical explanations and mixed empirical evidence of the ...
Is Teacher Pay “Adequate”?
(Department of Economics, 2005)
In school finance lawsuits plaintiffs often claim that pay levels are not sufficient to recruit teachers who can deliver constitutionally-mandated levels of educational services. In this paper I consider several ways in which one might bring...
Accounting for Fluctuations in Social Network Usage and Migration Dynamics
(Department of Economics, 2004)
In this paper, we examine network capital usage and migration patterns in a theoretical model. Networks are modeled as impacting the migration decision in many ways. When young, larger networks reduce the time lost moving from one region to another...
Networks, Standards and Intellectual Property Rights
(Department of Economics, 2007)
This paper reviews issues that lie at the intersection between intellectual property rights (IPR) and network effects, especially in the context of the global economy. Some of the relevant questions are: (1) How do IPR influence the provision...
Using State Administrative Data to Measure Program Performance
(Department of Economics, 2006)
We use administrative data from Missouri to examine the sensitivity of earnings impact estimates for a job training program based on alternative nonexperimental methods. We consider regression adjustment, Mahalanobis ...
Herding and Bank Runs
(Department of Economics, 2007)
Traditional models of bank runs do not allow for herding effects, because in these models withdrawal decisions are assumed to be made simultaneously. I extend the banking model to allow a depositor to choose his withdrawal ...
Heterogeneous Information and Investment under Uncertainty
(Department of Economics, 2007)
A sudden change in investment environment shifts objective uncertainty (characterized by parameters that determine the distribution of returns) and at the same time heightens subjective uncertainty (about the data generating ...
Who is Afraid of the Friedman Rule?
(Department of Economics, 2004)
In this paper, we explore the connection between optimal monetary policy and heterogeneity among agents. We study a standard monetary economy with two types of agents in which the stationary distribution of money holdings is non-degenerate. Sans...
The Impact of Welfare Reform on Leaver Characteristics, Employment and Recidivism: An Analysis of Maryland and Missouri
(Department of Economics, 2007)
reform. We find that after welfare reform leavers are much more likely to be working. Although in Maryland those working have earnings that are somewhat below employed leavers prior to reform, in Missouri earnings for employed leavers are unchanged...