Several recent empirical studies have challenged the conventional wisdom that deficits cause a higher interest rate. Many economists are, however, critical of the seemingly implied theoretical justification--that every individual fully recognizes the size of the deficit and the extent to which...

This paper demonstrates that plausible cost-based explanations exist for what are commonly perceived to be cases of price discrimination. The authors explain such commonly discussed problems as the price spreads of retail gasoline products, the "high" price of dinners at restaurants, the "high"...

The authors' note shows that the level of risk-sharing is not likely to increase when a deficit is created. A certain level of insurance can as easily be accomplished under a balanced budget or under a surplus, and the creation of a deficit does not provide a superior means, and probably an...

Most economists agree that opportunistic behavior by politicians is limited by the threat of reelection. By implication, the level of shirking should be the greatest when a politician decides to leave office. This paper seeks to learn whether shirking can be reduced when opportunities exist for...

It is frequently assumed that safe-storage gun laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides, while the possible impact on crime rates is ignored. We find no support that safe-storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. Instead, these storage requirements appear...

We examine several theoretical and empirical issues concerning punitive damage awards and their importance to business. First, we argue that previous justifications of punitive damage awards ignore the role of private contracting and reputation in assuring contractual performance. In the absence...

Dan A. Black and Daniel S. Nagin state that my article with David Mustard assumes that the effect of concealed-handgun laws is constant over time, that the effect is the same across states, that the article does not control for local time trends, and that we did not investigate whether the...

The authors resurrects an idea due to J. Hirshleifer (1971) by examining how one firm might profit by trading in the securities of other firms whose values are dependent upon the first firm's actions. They focus on the case of entry: can an entrant profit from trading in the securities of an...

The authors show that individuals' errors in identifying the relationships among variables cause downward biases in the aggregate that are equivalent to the public underestimating the strengths of the true relationships. They argue that rational expectations has considered only the...

Many critics believe that since high income criminals can afford to purchase better legal services they are less severely punished than poor criminals who commit equivalent crimes. Others are concerned that the penalties imposed on criminals are "too small." This paper shows that ignoring the...