The U.S. Constitution includes many checks and balances that necessitate the ruling party to compromise with the opposition. I develop a model in which this feature prompts the President to compromise on the strength of the candidates nominated for positions in the federal government and...

Behaviorally informed interventions include nudges, taxes, subsidies, bans, and mandates. In evaluating such interventions, policymakers should consider both their welfare effects (including, for example, their potentially negative effects on subjective well-being) and their effects on...

The extent to which households can self-insure depends on family structure and wage risk. We calibrate a model of couples and singles’ savings and labor supply under two types of wage processes. The first wage process is the canonical—age independent, linear—one that is typically used to...

This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation-including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting-and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to austerity and political participation. The...

For decades the rhetoric of federalism has been an important part of the debate over welfare reform. The alignments were predictable. Anti-big government conservatives argued for state and local control over welfare programs arrayed against New Deal liberals seeking federal funding and...