Ballot box voting is often considered the essence of political freedom. But it has two major shortcomings: individual voters have little chance of making a difference, and they also face strong incentives to remain ignorant about the issues at stake. "Voting with your feet," however, avoids both...

With the appearance of "wellbeing stagnation", the Chinese government has gradually realized the negative impact of increasingly severe environmental problem on people's wellbeing, and has then has formulated a series of environmental policies. Based on the balanced panel data from2014 to 2018...

In the literature on urban studies, the size distribution of cities has been attributed to a random growth process where transportation externalities, congestion costs, and capital formation all play a crucial role. However, the classic economics models do not fully capture the impact of...

Participative political institutions in late medieval cities in the German Lands had the potential to impact city size and growth. The study confirms the positive effect on economic outcomes of inclusive political institutions in 282 cities, as found by other studies, but supports a more...

This paper examines a distinctive mechanism of providing incentives to local governments - upgrading counties to cities. In China, awarding city status to existing counties is the dominant way of creating new urban administrative units, during which the local government gets many benefits. Using...

State preemption laws strictly limit local governments from regulating beyond their borders. Local governments, however, face a broad spectrum of challenges which cannot be confined to municipal borders. These challenges freely flow in and out of many local jurisdictions at the same time. The...

Employing tools drawn from economics and urban studies - particularly agglomeration economics, public choice, and the wisdom of Woody Allen's classic film Annie Hall - this essay provides a theoretical explanation for the prevalence of big city political corruption. The essay argues that the...

Institutional arrangements to protect the environment, manage natural resources, or regulate other aspects of society and the environment are not merely matters of optimal institutional design or choice. These arrangements result, at least in substantial part, from the evolution of...

This quarter’s conventional CCEA analysis finds indications that the listless economic recovery in Connecticut is slowly strengthening, with performance approaching national growth rates. Looking ahead eight business quarters, this Outlook details three scenarios: one based on housing permits,...