The article identifies two goals of the charitable giving tax incentives: promoting actual charitable work and fostering a strong culture of charitable giving with broad participation. The recent increase to the standard deduction and the rise of donor-advised funds compromise both goals. The...

U.S. markets for outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) include clinics that are private for-profit, private non-profit, and public (i.e., government-run). We study the market structure of OSAT using recently-developed methods from the empirical industrial organization literature on...

Private land trusts protect much land in the U.S., but private groups may fail to coordinate conservation decisions with other conservation agents. Furthermore, it is difficult for public agencies to make optimal reserve-site selections without knowing how these public reserves might influence...

We study the economic and political effects of competition by state-owned firms, leveraging the decentralized entry of public pharmacies to local markets in Chile around local elections. Public pharmacies sell drugs at a third of private pharmacy prices, because of a stronger upstream bargaining...

Since the advent of state sovereignty with the Peace of Westphalia, powerful Western nations have determined and applied international law in a manner that advance their national interests. In short, the international legal process has been a mechanism of hegemony, and powerful Western nations...

Between 1883 and 1919, Andrew Carnegie donated approximately $1 billion in 2019 dollars to fund the construction of more than 1,500 public libraries across the United States. We show that this historical rollout of public libraries — which promoted access to knowledge for millions of people...

In this study, we examine the comparative advantage of cooperatives relative to for-profit firms in infrastructure provision. We argue that infrastructure projects generate positive local externalities for the communities in which they are located, and that cooperatives, being able to...

In 2002, New Zealand's government-funded primary health care payments were changed from a fee-for-service basis to a capitation basis as part of a change towards a population-based, managed care style of primary health care provision. However, some specific differences characterise the New...

This paper examines the consequences of creating a fully competitive market in a sector previously dominated by a cost-minimising public firm. Workers in the economy are heterogeneous in their motivation to work in the sector. In line with empirical findings, our model implies that firms in the...

With population ageing setting in sooner and more forcefully than in other OECD countries, Finland needs to reorder its fiscal priorities so as to ensure fiscal sustainability. That will require considerable reform as public spending currently expands vigorously. While GDP growth has slowed from...