Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), allowed the Old Order Amish to limit their children’s education to eight grades in private, one-room schools that resemble those of the nineteenth century. An important factual claim in Yoder was that Amish education was as effective as that provided by...

Economists often casually assume that a school district and a city that share the same name also share the same territory, but in fact exactly congruent boundaries are rare. Using the overlap of school district and municipal boundaries available on Google Earth, I find that about two-thirds of...

Fiscal zoning is the practice of using local land-use regulation to preserve and possibly enhance the local property tax base. Economists agree that if localities can conduct "perfect zoning," which effectively makes all real estate development decisions subject to a review that balances its...

Regulatory takings arise when the government adopts a regulation so restrictive of private property's use that it is tantamount to the loss an owner would suffer if the government had simply acquired it. Current American practice always offers compensation to landowners whose property is...