Economics departments are faced with growing demands to document what their graduates have learned upon completion of the undergraduate major. The results of a national survey of economics department chairs in the U.S. reveal that nearly two-thirds of the departments have a formal assessment...

Using state-level U.S. data over 1956–2008 this paper examines the demand for cigarettes. The long data span enables us to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of various policies and to examine cigarette demand across individual states. Our results show cigarette demand to be price...

This research examines the influence of government decentralization on corruption in the United States. Previous research has focused primarily on fiscal decentralization. We address whether the structure of local governments — measured in terms of the scope of services offered and the...

In this paper the excise tax policy of U.S. state governments is analyzed with special attention to how this policy is influenced by the level of excise taxation in neighboring states, "border-tax effects," and the relative size of the market located across state boundaries. Using a panel data...

Using a well-known index of corruption, this paper examines the determinants of corruption for a large sample of countries. Specifically, the present study brings empirical evidence to bear on the question of whether economic freedom or political freedom serves as a deterrent to corrupt...

The possibility of a relationship between tax revenue and tax progressivity has been an issue of interest to both theorists and policymakers in recent years. Among the public choice theorists there is debate about the expected direction of association. The empirical results have also been mixed....