This article discusses schools as the primary unit of accountability and how school performance is measured and examines whether school-based accountability and incentive programs increase student achievement and how they impact the behavior of principals.

Much of the controversy about whether mortgage lenders discriminate against minorities can be explained in terms of the confusion about how to define discrimination. Based on the legal definition, careful studies of loan denial rates, such as that done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston,...

When applied to North Carolina and Massachusetts state income tax structures, a portfolio choice model points to the dominance of income taxes in the optimal portfolios of each state and large differences in progressivity, trade-offs, and stability.

Equalizing aid can be used by the federal government to equalize fiscal outcomes or resources among subnational governments or by states to equalize outcomes or resources among local governments. The primary focus of this paper is on financial equity.

Investigates the simultaneous relationship between tax rates and city property tax bases using data for 86 large U.S. cities in 1972, 1977, and 1982.

Explains the measures of city fiscal condition and of state and federal assistance to cities. Presents a model of state assistance to cities and tests it using data for 70 major central cities in 1982.

Provides evidence on several policy issues about state aid to local governments. Focuses on changes in, rather than levels of, state aid.

This paper marshals available evidence from both the U.S. and other countries on the effects of private schools, peer effects, and competition to demonstrate that that any gains in overall student achievement from a large scale voucher program are at best likely to be small. Moreover, given the...

Despite the involvement of two-thirds of economists in it, the higher education industry remains incompletely understood. Among the topics related to higher education that invite further research are the rapid increase in college costs, the interaction of tenure and the end of mandatory...