Rank-order tournaments with heterogeneous competitors work best when the competitors are relatively equal in abilities. Using data from 2007-2012 on major track and field events, this paper examines whether the presence of a superstar, Usain Bolt, has an effect on competitors. Results indicate a...

"This paper provides an empirical examination of interactions between welfare caseloads and local labor markets using data on caseload stocks, entries, and exits. Granger-causality tests show that unemployment rates Granger-cause caseload activity but caseload activity does not Granger-cause...

Evidence outside the tax arena suggests that firms earn rents in the presence of agglomerations, which could lessen the mobility of firms in the agglomeration. If so, then governments might be able to extract a portion of rents from businesses through higher tax rates without as much concern...

We provide possibility results on the aggregation of beliefs and tastes for Monotone, Bernoullian and Archimedian preferences of Cerreia-Vioglio, Ghirardato, Maccheroni, Marinacci and Siniscalchi (2011). We propose a new axiom, Unambiguous Pareto Dominance, which requires that if the unambiguous...

Gender differences in outcomes are often explained by gender differences in competitiveness. Using evidence from the outdoor World Championships and Olympics 1,500 meter event, this paper investigates whether gender differences exist in the behavior of runners. Results indicate that there are...

In this study, we examine the effect of public spending for the arts on state economic growth among U.S. states. While there is a large literature on the effects of many elements of public spending on economic growth, this literature has ignored spending for the arts. We extend this literature...

The literature investigating strategic tax competition among U.S. state has shown significant variation in terms of the magnitude, and even the sign, of tax competition effects. One dimension upon which variation in results may occur is the period of analysis. It is plausible that tax...