Although the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits state taxes that discriminate against interstate commerce, it has failed to provide a clear explanation of which taxes are discriminatory. In this paper, we provide an economic analysis that...

We report three findings: (1) Using evidence from chain bankruptcies and data on 12-18 million establishments per year, we show that large retailers produce significant positive spillovers. (2) Local governments respond to the size of these externalities. When a town's boundaries allow it to...

Using the texts of the People’s Daily, an official publication of the Communist Party of China, the author shows that the socialist alliance between China and North Korea has significantly weakened since the Korean War.

This paper analyzes conflicts that arise when trying to apply traditional antitrust principles in the context of digital markets.

This working paper, based on Carmen Reinhart's Adam Smith Lecture at the 60th NABE Annual Meeting in September 2018, takes a selective global tour of some of the prominent economic and financial risks in advanced, emerging, and low-income developing economies.

After a protracted legal and political battle, on March 11, 2011, the Wisconsin state Legislature passed Act 10, the Budget Repair Act, which increased public employee contributions toward pensions and health coverage and restricted union powers of collective bargaining and dues collection. This...

Financial advisors commonly use earnings replacement rates to assist workers in their retirement planning. Policymakers and analysts use them to gauge the adequacy of Social Security benefits and other retirement income in allowing retirees to maintain pre-retirement living standards. In recent...

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...