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The Economic Theory of Illegal Goods: The Case of Drugs
Murphy, Kevin M.; Grossman, Michael; Becker, Gary S. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2004
This paper concentrates on both the positive and normative effects of punishments that enforce laws to make production and consumption of particular goods illegal, with illegal drugs as the main example. Optimal public expenditures on apprehension and conviction of illegal suppliers obviously...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005714196
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Predation, Efficiency, and Inequality
Kim, Minseong; Grossman, Herschel I. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 1997
This paper shows how predation breaks the links between an economy's aggregate resourceendowment and aggregate consumption and between the interpersonal distribution of endowments and the interpersonal distribution of consumption. We construct a general-equilibrium model in which some people...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005088878
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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
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The Welfare Economics of Default Options in 401(k) Plans
Bernheim, B. Douglas; Fradkin, Andrey; Popov, Igor - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2011
Default contribution rates for 401(k) pension plans powerfully influence workers’ choices. Potential causes include opt-out costs, procrastination, inattention, and psychological anchoring. We examine the welfare implications of defaults under each of these theories. We show how the optimal...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009372448
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Time is Money: Life Cycle Rational Inertia and Delegation of Investment Management
Mitchell, Olivia; Kim, Hugh Hoikwang; Maurer, Raimond - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013
This paper incorporates two empirically-grounded insights into a dynamic life cycle portfolio choice model: the fact that investors forego the opportunity to accumulate job-specific skills when they spend time managing their own money, and the observation that efficiency in financial decision...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011210995
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Government Policy and Labor Supply with Myopic or Targeted Savings Decisions
Kaplow, Louis - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2015
A central justification for social insurance and for other policies aimed at retirement savings is that individuals may … payroll taxes and other withholding to fund retirement savings as akin to an income tax, while largely ignoring the distant …, making savings-promotion policies much more costly than appreciated. Or consider what may be the labor supply implications …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011271390
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To Leave or Not To Leave: The Distribution of Bequest Motives
Kopczuk, Wojciech; Lupton, Joseph - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2005
In this paper, we examine the effect of observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the desire to die with positive net worth. Using a structural life-cycle model nested in a switching regression with unknown sample separation, we find that roughly three-fourths of the elderly single population has...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005087474
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Denial of Death and Economic Behavior
Kopczuk, Wojciech; Slemrod, Joel - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2005
We model denial of death and its effect on economic behavior. Attempts to reduce death anxiety and the possibility of denial of mortality-relevant information interact with intertemporal choices and may lead to time-inconsistent behavior and other "behavioral" phenomena. In the model, repression...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005087485
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Utility from Accumulation
Kaplow, Louis - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2009
simple intertemporal model featuring utility from accumulation is used here to examine consumption and savings, the choice … long run, give more than others do, this source of utility may be especially important in analyzing savings behavior, gifts …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008628332
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Myopia and the Effects of Social Security and Capital Taxation on Labor Supply
Kaplow, Louis - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2006
Myopia is increasingly believed to be a significant determinant of behavior and also plays a central role in justifications for social security and policies toward the taxation of capital. It is important, however, to account for labor supply effects, particularly in light of the preexisting...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005710581