This study compares ex ante estimates of the direct costs of individual regulations to ex post assessments of the same regulations. Our review of more than two dozen environmental and occupational safety regulations indicates that ex ante estimates of total (direct) costs have tended to exceed...

Who will pay for new policies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the United States? This paper considers a slice of the question by examining the near-term impact on domestic manufacturing industries of both upstream (economy-wide) and downstream (electric power...

Estimates of marginal abatement costs for reducing carbon emissions in the United States by the major economic-energy models vary by a factor of five, undermining support for mandatory policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We use meta analysis to explain these cost differences, holding...

The possibility that workers could be adversely affected by environmental policies imposed on heavily regulated industries has led to claims of a "jobs versus the environment" trade-off by both business and labor leaders. The present research examines this claim at the industry level for four...

This thesis is a collection of three empirical essays on the effect of profit incentives on innovation and technology adoption. Chapter 1, written with Daron Acemoglu, investigates the effect of (potential) market size on entry of new drugs and pharmaceutical innovation. Focusing on exogenous...