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Olken, Benjamin; Pande, Rohini - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2011

Recent years have seen a remarkable expansion in economists' ability to measure corruption. This, in turn, has led to a … new generation of well-identified, microeconomic studies. We review the evidence on corruption in developing countries in … light of these recent advances, focusing on three questions: how much corruption is there, what are the efficiency …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009278235

Employer Learning and the Signaling Value of Education

Altonji, Joseph G.; Pierret, Charles R. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 1996

If profit maximizing firms have limited information about the general productivity of new workers, they may choose to use easily observable characteristics such as years of education to 'statistically discriminate' among workers. The pure credential value of education will depend on how quickly...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005714413

Should Public Retirement Plans be Fully Funded?

Bohn, Henning - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2010

Most state and local retirement plans strive for full funding, at least by actuarial standards. Funding measured at market values fluctuates and often falls short. A common argument for full funding is that pensions are a form of deferred compensation that does not justify a debt. The paper...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008674227

Funding in Public Sector Pension Plans - International Evidence

Ponds, Eduard; Severinson, Clara; Yermo, Juan - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2011

Most countries have separate pension plan for public sector employees. The future fiscal burden of these plans can be substantial as the government usually is the largest employer, pension promises in the public sector tend to be relatively generous, and future payments have to be paid out...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009025237

Corruption, Intimidation, and Whistle-blowing: a Theory of Inference from Unverifiable Reports

Chassang, Sylvain; Miquel, Gerard Padró i - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014

possible to establish robust bounds on equilibrium corruption using only non-verifiable reports. Our analysis suggests a simple …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969268

Corrupting Learning: Evidence from Missing Federal Education Funds in Brazil

Ferraz, Claudio; Finan, Frederico; Moreira, Diana B. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012

This paper examines if money matters in education by looking at whether missing resources due to corruption affect … student outcomes. We use data from the auditing of Brazil's local governments to construct objective measures of corruption … of corruption across municipalities and controlling for student, school, and municipal characteristics, we find a …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950699

Conflict, Evolution, Hegemony, and the Power of the State

Levine, David; Modica, Salvatore - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013

In a model of evolution driven by conflict between societies more powerful states have an advantage. When the influence of outsiders is small we show that this results in a tendency to hegemony. In a simple example in which institutions differ in their "exclusiveness" we find that these...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950707

Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India

Muralidharan, Karthik; Niehaus, Paul; Sukhtankar, Sandip - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014

Anti-poverty programs in developing countries are often difficult to implement; in particular, many governments lack the capacity to deliver payments securely to targeted beneficiaries. We evaluate the impact of biometrically-authenticated payments infrastructure ("Smartcards") on beneficiaries...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950950

Third-Party Opportunism and the Nature of Public Contracts

spiller, pablo t.; Moszoro, Marian W. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012

The lack of flexibility in public procurement design and implementation reflects public agents' political risk adaptation to limit hazards from opportunistic third parties - political opponents, competitors, interest groups - while externalizing the associated adaptation costs to the public at...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950960

Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability and Corruption: Evidence from US States

Campante, Filipe R.; Do, Quoc-Anh - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013

We show that isolated capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption across US states, in …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010951032