The authors evaluate the voluntary export restraint that was initially placed on exports of automobiles from Japan in 1981. They evaluate the impact this policy had on U.S. consumer welfare, firm profits, and foregone tariff revenue from its initiation through 1990.

Twelve years into the Napster era, economists have devoted substantial attention to revenue consequences of unpaid file sharing. Yet, this is only one of a host of questions whose answers are needed to inform evidence-based copyright policy in the digital era. Digitization's effect on travel...

In the past decade Americans have increasingly turned their attention to nonlocal information sources, raising concerns about disengagement from local communities. Regulation sometimes seeks to curtail the integration of media markets through the promotion of "localism." This paper examines the...

We estimate a spatial model of liquor demand to analyze the impact of government-controlled retailing on entry patterns. In the absence of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, the state would have roughly 2.5 times the current number of stores, higher consumer surplus, and lower payments to...

Recent technological advances have dramatically lowered the cost of transmitting information over large distances. In the late 1990s, the New York Times implemented a national distribution strategy, expanding delivery in over 100 cities. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data on local...

The 44 Liquormart decision, eliminating Rhode Island's ban on liquor price advertising, made Rhode Island the subject of a natural experiment for measuring the effect of advertising on prices. Using Massachusetts prices as controls, we find that advertising stores substantially cut only prices...