This paper evaluates the impact of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines on interjudge sentencing disparity, which is defined as the differences in average nominal prison sentence lengths for comparable caseloads assigned to different judges. This disparity is measured as the dispersion of a random...

We estimate the effect of neighborhood characteristics on the mortality of poor black male youth in families relocated through the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, a residential mobility program implemented in Chicago, USA in 1976. Within our sample (N = 2850), 52 post-placement deaths...

Randomized controlled trials are increasingly used to evaluate policies. How can we make these experiments as useful as possible for policy purposes? We argue greater use should be made of experiments that identify the behavioral mechanisms that are central to clearly specified policy questions,...

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a rich array of methods can be applied to increase the relevance of field experiments in public economics. Two cross–cutting themes are important in multiple phases of the research. First, greater statistical sophistication can draw more value...