The Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek (HOV) model allows us to analyze whether countries specialize in particular subsets of industries as they accumulate production factors. Davis and Weinstein (2001) provided evidence that global data supports the HOV model when production techniques are modified to...

Previous literature stresses the importance of free media for economic development. By its nature TV, radio, and newspapers cross borders, allowing citizens to easily sample media from neighboring countries. This creates pressure for domestic reform and spreads media freedom between countries....

Financial market information can provide an objective assessment of expected losses due to global warming. In a Merton-type asset pricing model, with asset prices affected by changes in investment opportunities caused by global warming, the risk premium is significantly negative and growing over...

Entrepreneurship is the main engine of economic growth and prosperity. Previous research has explored both the factors that make individuals more likely to be entrepreneurs and the economic policies that foster entrepreneurial activity. In this paper we explore, for the first time, the...

Continuous violent conflict is a central cause of economic stagnation in many of the world’s poorest countries. Peace agreements are one common tool used to attempt to break these ‘conflict traps.’ However, these agreements often fail due to the lack of a clear and credible commitment by...

The federal Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) periodic release of updated metropolitan statistical area (MSA) definitions frequently garners significant attention from local economic development professionals and policymakers. The interest is grounded, in part, in the common belief that...

Understanding international differences in the emissions intensity of trade and production is essential to understanding the effects of greenhouse gas limitation policies. We develop data on emissions from 48 industrial sectors in 32 countries and estimate the CO2 emissions intensity of...

This paper empirically analyzes the effect of trade openness on culture, measured by indicators of trust, respect for others, perceived level of self-determination, and level of obedience. These cultural categories play a central role in encouraging or limiting economic and social interactions...

This paper presents a linear self-referential macroeconomic model with the possibility of multiple equilibria where agents have the choice of using one of two forecasting models (one of minimum state variable form and the other of sunspot form) to form expectations of current and future prices....

It is well established that geographic areas benefit, in terms of the share of government spending they capture, from having a legislator with higher tenure, holding constant the tenure of other legislators. However, the implications of this literature for how the total production of legislation...