This paper studies the effects of oil rent on development using a unique panel dataset describing worldwide oil discoveries and extractions. First, we revisit the so-called curse of oil, which contends that oil rent hinders economic development. Exploiting cross-country variations in the timing...

This paper examines the effect of oil abundance on political violence. First, we revisit one of the main empirical findings of the civil conflict literature that oil abundance causes civil war. Using a unique panel dataset describing worldwide oil discoveries and extractions, we show that simply...

This paper investigates the impact on health outcomes of the regulation prohibiting physicians from prescribing drugs without a prior physical examination. This requirement could improve health by reducing illegal access to prescription drugs. But it reduces access to health care by making it...

Simon Kuznets’ (1955) hypothesis that as a country develops, a natural cycle develops where inequality first increases, then decreases, has become known at the Kuznets curve. This pattern has also been applied to the environment, an ‘Environmental Kuznets curve’, showing that as...

In 1998, U.S. states began legislating mandates for health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. Contraceptive insurance may reduce the cost of having sex, increasing sexual activity and pregnancy. Increased contraceptive usage may reduce pregnancies and allow women to better time...

Previous literature indicates that non-economic damages caps increase the number of physicians but finds no significant effect on health. A potential explanation is that, by reducing the cost of malpractice, caps affect physicians’ incentives to provide high quality care, an important...

Among the factors suspected for the lagging improvements in infant health in recent period are increasing obesity and diabetes prevalence among women of childbearing age. This paper investigates the impact of mandated insurance coverage for diabetes on adverse pregnancy outcomes. Among infants...

"This paper presents a theory of competition for political leadership between incumbent leaders and their challengers in which the possible equilibrium political market structures range from pure monopoly (unchallenged dictatorship) to perfectly competitive (ideal democracy). Leaders are...