Recent research suggests that income redistribution preferences vary across identity groups. We employ a new pattern recognition technology to uncover what these groups are. Using data from the General Social Survey, we present a new stylized fact that preferences for governmental provision of...

This paper examines the impact of vouchers in general, and voucher design in particular, on public school performance. It argues that all voucher programs are not created equal. There are often fundamental differences in voucher designs that affect public school incentives differently and induce...

Researchers, policymakers, and parents are giving education reforms involving expanded school choice increased attention. Many view the heightened competition that would presumably result from such reforms as a panacea for the ills currently plaguing the public education system in the US....

The state of Michigan radically altered its school finance system in 1994. This was a legislature-led reform that took place somewhat unexpectedly and without the intervention of any courts. The new plan, called Proposal A, significantly increased the state share of K-12 spending and entailed...

In this paper we investigate if there was a causal effect of changes in current and 'permanent' income on the health of East Germans in the years following reunification. Reunification was completely unanticipated and therefore can be seen as a providing some exogenous variation, which resulted...

In this paper we apply a recently-developed statistical model that explicitly accounts for the extreme uncertainty surrounding film returns. The conditional distribution of box-office returns is analyzed using the stable distribution regression model. The regression coefficients in this model...

We use household survey data to construct a direct measure of absolute risk aversion based on the maximum price a consumer is willing to pay to buy a risky asset. We relate this measure to a set of consumers' decisions that in theory should vary with attitude towards risk. We find that elicited...

This paper introduces a tractable, structural model of subjective beliefs. Since agents that plan for the future care about expected future utility flows, current felicity can be increased by believing that better outcomes are more likely. On the other hand, expectations that are biased towards...

Recent studies have drawn attention to high prevalence of stunting among children in rural India. In fact, these estimates point to more pervasive deprivation than conventional measures of poverty based on income or consumption expenditure shortfalls. Since stunting measures chronic...

Entre 1984 y 2002 se presentó una caída permanente en la propo0rción de hogares colombianos que utilizan personal asalariado para trabajo doméstico. Utilizamos un modelo teórico de la decisión del hogar de tener o no tener servicio doméstico y estimamos dicha probabilidad. Ésta se ve...