Many motivations exist that cause legislators to behave strategically when voting. However, it is difficult to uncover the magnitude of the interaction among politicians. This paper takes a “spatial” approach to the problem, using a spatial autoregressive model where the elements of the...

We use national and California price data from January, 2002 to June, 2009 for three hybrid and five non-hybrid car models to estimate the share of federal tax preferences for purchasing hybrid cars that accrues to car sellers. Our preferred estimates suggest that almost one-half of the subsidy...

The economics of fiscal federalism has identified two book-end departures from first-best provision of a public good. Local governments may respond to local conditions, but ignore inter-jurisdictional spillovers. Alternatively, central governments may internalize spillovers, but impose uniform...

Current renewable portfolio standards in Illinois call for 25% of the state’s energy to be met through renewable means by 2025, with 75% of this requirement to come from wind. The problematic intermittency of wind might be overcome by a geographically disperse portfolio of wind farms. Using...

The economics of environmental federalism identifies two book-end departures from the first-best, which equates marginal costs and benefits in all local jurisdictions. Local governments may respond to local conditions, but ignore inter-jurisdictional spillovers. Alternatively, central...

Research in political economy has traditionally sought to disentangle the effects of legislative ideology and constituent interest in explaining policy decisions. Frequently, proxy variables are used to measure constituent interest. However, these measures do not adequately reflect true...