Previous literature indicates that non-economic damages caps increase the number of physicians but finds no significant effect on health. A potential explanation is that, by reducing the cost of malpractice, caps affect physicians’ incentives to provide high quality care, an important...

This paper examines the effect of oil abundance on political violence. First, we revisit one of the main empirical findings of the civil conflict literature that oil abundance causes civil war. Using a unique panel dataset describing worldwide oil discoveries and extractions, we show that simply...

This paper studies the effects of oil rent on development using a unique panel dataset describing worldwide oil discoveries and extractions. First, we revisit the so-called curse of oil, which contends that oil rent hinders economic development. Exploiting cross-country variations in the timing...

More progressive taxes, holding tax liability constant, generate disincentives for health investment by decreasing benefits for additional working time and, thus, decreasing returns to health. On the other hand, progressive taxation may induce individuals to invest more in health for the purpose...

Taxpayers are concerned that introducing a charter school in their neighborhood will decrease their property values. We test this proposition by using three methods. We test the size and significance of the distance from a charter school with respect to property values; weather the intervention...

Because statistical analysis requires both familiarity with and the ability to use mathematics, students typically are required to take one or more prerequisite math courses prior to enrolling in the business statistics course. Despite these math prerequisites, however, students find it...

Tournaments have long been used as a resource allocation device. Regardless of the margin of victory, a tournament's champion is typically rewarded far more handsomely than are its losers. For this reason, a tournament can generally be expected to elicit spectacular levels of performance from a...

We analyze the increase in sales of daily numbers lottery games – Pick 3 and Pick 4 games – after Ohio introduced midday drawings in August 1999. Using a 36 month panel data set of Ohio lottery sales by zip code we find that midday drawings increased Pick 3 sales by 12.1% per adult and...

The major goal of the research presented here is to test the usefulness of a different way of conceptualizing broad regions of the United States. The census regions are often used to group MSAs for various types of studies. The alternative regions are defined based on access to ocean, Great...

Failures may lead to ultimate success in both nature and business. Just as dynamic ecosystems depend on death to replace senescent organisms with vigorous growth, the termination of uneconomic activities is essential to wealth creation. This paper explores the benefits of failures, and uses...