This paper examines the performance of the JTPA performance system, a widely emulated model for inducing efficiency in government organizations. We present a model of how performance incentives may distort bureaucratic decisions. We define cream skimming within the model. Two major empirical...

We employ the model used by Fraker, Moffitt, and Wolf (1985) to estimate effective tax rates and guarantees in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program for the years 1967-82 to produce comparable estimates for 1983-91. We compare this method of benefit prediction with other...

This paper explores the interface between personality psychology and economics. We examine the predictive power of personality and the stability of personality traits over the life cycle. We develop simple analytical frameworks for interpreting the evidence in personality psychology and suggest...

This paper is an exploratory attempt to view the role that social experiments in general, and the income maintenance experiments and work/welfare demonstrations in particular, have played in the policy process through the lens provided by the knowledge ...

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of labor market earnings and inequality for males in Panama. Using newly available microdata, we estimate earnings equations based on the measurement framework of Mincer (1974) and compare them with those for other countries at various...

We compare propensity-score matching methods with covariate matching estimators. We first discuss the data requirements of propensity-score matching estimators and covariate matching estimators. Then we propose two new matching metrics incorporating the ...

This paper estimates models of the evolution of cognitive and noncognitive skills and explores the role of family environments in shaping these skills at different stages of the life cycle of the child. Central to this analysis is identification of the technology of skill formation. We estimate...