We examine roll call votes on gun control in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 1980s to determine whether political action committees (PACs) make spot market purchases, prepay for votes in the prior election cycle, or make long-term investments. Previous tests generally employ PAC...

Over 60 million registered motor vehicles in 20 states are subject to mandatory periodic safety inspection. The effect of safety inspection on roadway casualties has been estimated by several studies, with mixed results. We present a unique test of inspection effectiveness by analyzing the...

The rising cost of hurricanes and other natural hazards has been a concern to policy makers and insurance industry executives. We offer a heretofore overlooked explanation for rising hurricane damages—the reduction in fatalities from hurricanes. Improved hurricane forecasts, more extensive...

We examined the effectiveness of state automobile safety inspections and present new evidence from a panel of the 50 states for the years 1981–1993. Our approach incorporated several innovations over previous studies of safety inspections; most significantly, we estimated a fixed-effects model...