For the steel import quota bill of 1999, each word in the Congressional Record costs $39 in campaign contributions from the steel industry. Consequently, our answer is "Yes, talk is cheap!"

We consider an economy with a tax on all labor earnings. We discover that a slightly binding minimum wage on one sector can enhance efficiency. The minimum wage attracts high-reservation wage workers into the minimum-wage sector. If the labor demand curve in the free sector is quite flat, the...

When there are two groups of officials in a public organization, we show that depending on the groups' behavior - collusive or competitive - increasing the level of monitoring and punishment may have different impacts on corruption. If the two groups of public officials had been demonstrating...