Although a great deal of sexual harassment takes place without words, even more of it does not. Whether it be the words that are used to make the kind of "quid pro quo" proposition that characterizes the classic if-you-sleep-with-me-you-will-not-get fired form of sexual harassment, or the...

This paper considers policies of the industrialized countries, as they pertain to crises in emerging markets. These fall into three areas: (1) their own macroeconomic policies, which determine the global financial environment; (2) their role in responding to crises when they occur, particularly...

This paper, written for a conference at the University of Lisbon, surveys patterns since the 16th century in the governance of communications service providers--in order, the mails, telegraphy, the telephone, and radio. It analyzes the tendency for many communications service enterprises to be...

It is commonly thought that the United States is a highly legalistic nation, and as a result it is commonly thought as well that official disobedience of law is publicly and politically disfavored. Yet when we look at numerous contemporary and not-so-contemporary examples, we discover that...

Many economic and social networks share two common organizing features: (1) a core-periphery structure; (2) positive correlation between network centrality and payoffs. In this paper, we build a model of network formation where these features emerge endogenously. In our model, the unique...

Differences in excise tax rates across jurisdictions create incentives for consumers to cross the border and purchase in lower-tax jurisdictions. This paper introduces a discrete choice model to examine tax avoidance and state border-crossing in the market for cigarettes. We exploit a rich...

Requiring agents with private information to select from a menu of incentive schedules can yield efficiency gains. It will do so if, and only if, agents will receive further private information after selecting the incentive schedule but before taking the action that determines where on the...

The attacks of September 11, 2001, and more recently the Madrid and London downtown train bombings, have raised concerns over both the safety of downtowns and the continuous efforts by terrorists to attack areas of such high density and significance. This article employs building-level data on...

The Internet has the potential to significantly reduce search costs by allowing consumers to engage in low-cost price comparisons online. This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact that the rise of Internet comparison shopping sites has had for the prices of life insurance in the...

We consider a model of policy choice in which appropriate policies depend on a country's own circumstances, but the presence of a successful leader generates an informational externality and results in too little "policy experimentation." Corrupt governments are reined in while honest...