We study heterogeneity in minimum wage policy design and in the employment effects of minimum wage increases. Specifically, we study whether indexing minimum wages to inflation and differences in county-level wages and mobility rates lead to heterogenous employment effects following minimum wage...

Although the U.S. has a more progressive tax system than many other high-income countries, its overall fiscal system does less to reduce inequality because its tax system is smaller (OECD 2008). What societal preferences can explain these cross-country differences? We address this question by...

Information frictions between firms and regulators are typically seen as a means by which firms evade enforcement or, alternatively, a means through which they can limit rent-seeking behavior. In contrast, we argue that information frictions between firms and regulators reduce the efficiency of...

Recent proposals have recommended important modifications to the supplemental leverage ratio (SLR) to promote the production of market liquidity and other beneficial banking activities that are alleged to have declined because of the introduction of Basel III capital regulations. A much better...

In this working paper, Paul Kupiec develops an algorithm to approximate the loss rate distribution for fixed income portfolios with obligor concentrations.

Local governments rely heavily on sales tax revenue. We use national bankruptcies of big-box retail chains to study sudden plausibly exogenous revenue shortfalls. Treated localities respond by reducing spending on law enforcement and administrative services. We further study how cities with...

In 2012, anger erupted on the streets of Delhi following the violent rape and murder of a young woman. The scale of the protests, the extent of the media coverage, and the intensity of the public's opprobrium of the police and the administration of Delhi, was unprecedented. This paper argues...

It is often assumed that financial incentives of healthcare providers affect the care they deliver, but this issue is surprisingly difficult to study. The recent enactment of state laws that limit how much hospitals can charge uninsured patients provide a unique opportunity. Using an event study...

The Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA) has many legal issues that could prevent its use. Should there be a next financial crisis, regulators may again be forced to sell a large failing bank to a larger banking institution, creating yet another too-big-to-fail (TBTF)...

Singh and Mathur find that the emphasis on the OECD's concept of "economic substance" can have a significant impact on the scale as well as the location of economic activity and likely has highly unfavorable implications on economic activity for high-tax jurisdictions. Viewed from a U.S....