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...

We quantify the increasing use of complex mathematics and show that the increase is unique to economics in the social sciences. Over half a century ago Donald F. Gordon hypothesized that mathematics was most likely to be useful in manipulating long chains of relationships, but these were the...

The risk preferences of three-person groups and individuals are compared using a non-sequential repeated-measures lottery experiment with $20 per-player win percentages varying from 10% to 90%. Analysis based on independent samples of certainty equivalent ratios (certainty equivalent/expected...

This paper analyzes the productivity change of the thirty provinces in China’s post-reform economy. The productivity change is estimated from the stochastic frontier model, in which the maximum likelihood estimation is applied to an augmented logarithmic production function incorporated with a...

Across many forms of rent seeking contests, the impact of risk aversion on equilibrium play is indeterminate. We design an experiment to compare individuals’ decisions across three contests which are isomorphic under risk-neutrality, but are typically not isomorphic under other risk...

By relaxing the two assumptions of constant returns to scale and perfect competition in the product market used by Solow (1957), this paper identifies a new decomposition of economic and productivity growth. The sources of economic growth are; adjusted economies of scales effect, weighted sum of...

Virtually all business and economics statistics texts start their discussion of hypothesis tests with some more-or-less detailed reference to criminal trials. Apparently, these authors believe that students are better able to understand the relevance and usefulness of hypothesis test procedures...

This paper uses responder pre-commitment and psychological type, as measured by the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), to gain insight into subject behavior in a laboratory ultimatum bargaining experiment. Three experiment design details are noteworthy: (1) one design requires responders to...

This paper investigates the impact of the regulation prohibiting physicians from prescribing drugs without a prior physical examination on health outcomes. This requirement should improve health by reducing illegal access to prescription drugs. On the other hand, it hampers the practice of...

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...