This paper investigates regional or international transfers as a means to prevent immigration into unemployment. We analyze a two-country model with free migration in which the rich country is characterized by minimum wage unemployment. Matching grants for investment in infrastructure are...

While urban renewal programs have become widely used policy measures to target urban development less is known about the reasons why certain areas are more responsive to policy interventions than others. With this study we address some of these issues by analyzing an urban renewal program in...

This paper investigates the distributional and efficiency consequences of an environmental tax reform, when the revenue from the green tax is recycled by varying labor tax rates. We build a general equilibrium model with imperfect heterogeneous labor markets, pollution consumption externalities,...

Under common law, the standard remedy for breach of contract is expectation damages. Under continental law, the standard is specific performance. The common law solution is ex post efficient. But is it also ex ante efficient? We use experimental methods to test whether knowing that...

Urban renewal areas are popular but empirically understudied spatial planning instruments designed to prevent urban decline and induce renewal. We use a quasi-experimental research design to study the effects of 22 renewal areas implemented in Berlin, Germany, to increase housing and living...

We use a quasi-experimental research design to study the effects of a spatially targeted renewal policy implemented in Berlin, Germany, in the aftermath of the city's division during the Cold War period. Our results suggest that over the course of 20 years, the policy helped to reduce (increase)...

I study behavioral responses to the green building certification system by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program (LEED). LEED provides four different certification levels (‘Certified', ‘Silver', ‘Gold', and ‘Platinum') that are all defined by a threshold. Using micro...

Pigou (1920) advocated for taxes, set equal to marginal damages, on goods produced and consumed that involve negative externalities. Samuelson (1954) laid out the conditions for optimal pure public goods provision, but noted that free-riding (the “demand revelation” problem) was likely to...

Exploiting the unique institutional setting of Hong Kong's real estate market, we uncover a curious ripple effect of haunted houses on the prices of nearby houses. Prices drop on average 19% for units that become haunted, 9% for units on the same floor, 6% for units in the same block, and 1% for...

There is a lively debate on whether football fans should pay an additional security fee, added to the price of tickets, to finance police activities on match days. This paper investigates the price effect on the demand for tickets in a dynamic setting, by considering two subgroups of spectators,...