This paper investigates strategic interaction among airlines in product-quality choices. Using an instrumental variables approach, the paper estimates flight-frequency reaction functions, which relate an airline's frequency on a route to its own characteristics and to the frequencies of...

What is the impact of caseload on judicial decision-making? Is increasing judicial staff effective in improving judicial services? To address these questions, we exploit a natural, near-randomized experiment in the Israeli judiciary. In 2012, six senior registrars were appointed in two of the...

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards recognizes teachers who meet performance standards for "accomplished" educators. States and districts provide support for teachers to obtain this certification, which is considered an honor in the field. Using high school data from Chicago...

"Soziale Dienste" wie die institutionalisierte Kinderbetreuung werden in Deutschland vorwiegend vom Staat selbst bzw. von frei-gemeinnützigen Trägern angeboten. Für die Nutzung dieser sozialen Dienste werden dabei in der Regel Gebühren verlangt, die unterhalb der tatsächlichen Kosten...

Applying the theory of yardstick competition to the schooling system, we show that it is optimal to have central tests of student achievement and to engage in benchmarking because it raises the quality of teaching. This is true even if teachers? pay (defined in monetary terms) is not performance...

Judges are obliged to give reasons for their decisions. A set of formal and informal norms specifies how this is to be done. These norms serve a whole array of purposes. This paper shows that one substantial effect is on decision quality. The effect can even be demonstrated on an ad hoc basis....

The 1993 Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a representative survey of the Italian population covering 24,000 individuals, reports detailed information on children attendance of public and private schools and parents? self-assessment of the quality of public schools in the city of residence....

We address the following question: how does a higher education funding system influence the trade-off that universities make between research and teaching? We do so by constructing a model that allows universities to choose actively the quality of their teaching and research when faced with...

Sogenannte Self-Service-Technologien (SST), wie Bankautomaten, automatischer Self-Checkout in Hotels, Telefonbanking und Dienstleistungen, die der Kunde über das Internet bezieht (z.B. Onlinebanking) werden in den letzten Jahren zunehmend von Unternehmen genutzt, um den kostenintensiven,...