A simple, robust, quasi-linear, structural general equilibrium rational voting model indicates turnout by voters motivated by the possibility of deciding the outcome is bellcurved in the ex-post winning margin and inversely proportional to electorate size. Applying this model to a large set of...

Among U.S. drivers involved in fatal accidents, blood alcohol concentration conditional on drinking is static. Thus the dynamics of drunk driving can be described using the fraction of accident-involved drivers who have been drinking (HBD). Changes in this variable imply significant reductions...

Many public and private entities utilize incentive systems in which improvements in measured performance are rewarded only if the agent crosses some pre-specified threshold. But neither the theory of their incentive effects nor the methods of estimating them has been fully developed. This paper...

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 exemplifies high-stakes legislation that attracted the interest of the public, legislators, academics, policy advocates, and executive agencies. This paper explores how these actors combined to generate intellectual support for this act within the...

This study analyzes nearly twenty-five years of U.S. survey data to determine the macroeconomic conditions associated with economies the public considers “good.” These surveys are correlated with, but distinct from, other frequently-studied, expectations-oriented indices of consumer...

This paper replicates Gruber, Kim, and Mayzlin’s (1999) analysis of the effect of physician financial incentives on cesarean delivery rates, using their data, sample selection criteria, and specification. Coincident trends explain much of their estimated positive relation between fees and...

The expected penalty for drunk driving can and does vary by blood alcohol content. This paper outlines the "penalty structure" that does this optimally, using two different metrics, shows how the optimality conditions can be implemented with available data to analyze policy ex ante or ex post,...

This paper examines how grade incentives affect student learning across a variety of courses at two universities, using for identification the discrete rewards offered by the standard A-F letter grade system. We develop five predictions about effort provision in the presence of the thresholds...

By 1998 all states had passed laws lowering the legal blood alcohol content for drivers under 21 to effectively zero. Theory shows these laws have ambiguous effects on overall fatalities and economic efficiency, and the data show they have little effect on driver behavior. A panel analysis of...

The empirical analysis of multiproduct pricing suffers from a lack of clear theoretical guidance and appropriate data, limitations which often render traditional regression-based analyses impractical. This paper analyzes ticket, parking, and concession pricing in Major League Baseball for the...