This paper proposes a new framework for the measurement of population health and the ranking of the health of different geographies. Since population health is a latent variable, studies which measure and rank the health of different geographies must aggregate observable health attributes into...

This paper presents a model of real effort provision in conjunction with rational social preference theory to predict how individuals exert effort to replace an exogenously determined “state of the world” with a preferred social outcome. Binary dictator games and real effort tasks are used...

This paper considers a contest setting in which a challenger chooses between one of two contests to enter after observing the level of defense at each. Despite the challenger’s chance of success being determined by a proportional contest success function, the defenders effectively find...

In this dissertation, I investigate how government policies influence an individual's decision to search for and accept a job and/or crime opportunity.Chapter 1 looks at how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. The...

This paper extends the Pissarides [Pissarides, Christopher A. Equilibrium Unemployment Theory. Cambridge: MIT (2000)] model of the labor market to include crime and punishment à la Becker [Becker, Gary S. "Crime and punishment: an economic approach." Journal of Political Economy 76 (1968):...

Prison-based work programs as well as income payments to released prisoners are both potential ways to reduce recidivism. Currently, these two components are loosely connected as prisoners who participate in work programs save, voluntarily or as a requirement, a fraction of their earnings and...

We propose a mechanism that eliminates the incentive for risk-averse agents to influence government policy via political contributions. The mechanism requires the government to create a political insurance exchange where agents can insure against the outcome of a government decision and firms...