We examine the effects of urban form and public transit supply on the commute mode choices and annual vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) of households living in 114 urban areas in 1990. The probability of driving to work is lower the higher are population centrality and rail miles supplied and the...

Growth stability is an important objective-because development requires sustained increases in income, because volatility is costly for the poor, and because volatility deters growth. We study the determinants of average growth and its volatility as a two-equation system, and find that higher...

In this paper, we examine empirically whether risk pooling is more advantageous among altruistic compared to selfish agents in a framework where individuals cannot make binding commitments. In particular, we incorporate altuism into a model of risk sharing under imperfect commitment and use...

New survey-based data on siblings are used to assess potential roles of bequests in redistributing income among siblings as implied by prominent models. The data are not focused on the upper tail of the wealth distribution and include both own and sib reports on own and sib's bequests, enabling...

We use data on monozygotic twins to obtain improved estimates of the effect of intrauterine nutrient intake on adult health and earnings and thus to evaluate the efficacy of programs aimed at increasing birthweight. We use the results to evaluate the bias in cross-sectional estimates and to...

Many studies find that parental resources importantly determine children's human capital, schooling returns, and earnings. The collective household approach suggests that, in addition, parental resources of marital partners may importantly affect resource distributions within marriage. This...