This theoretical model demonstrates that there is an excess burden from potential theft similar to that which results from an indirect tax with some positive probability of payment. In addition, the model shows that potential theft creates a bias for consumption to drift away from "steal-able"...

This theoretical note argues that although both gross costs and possible gross benefits from the Electoral College can be identified, they cannot be compared in such a way as to generate a case that the Electoral College yields net benefits to society. In other words, the Electoral College...

This study adopts a loanable funds model to investigate the impact of budget deficits in the U.S. on long term real interest rates. The study investigates both ex post real 10 year Treasury note yields and ex post real 20 year Treasury bond yields. The study period runs from 1955 through 1987,...

This study empirically examines the impact of the federal government budget on the nominal interest rate yield on US Treasury notes over the 1979-2001 period. In a system that includes the monetary base, the civilian labor force unemployment rate, the ex ante real 52 week Treasury bill rate, and...

This study has two objectives. First, it proffers and then empirically investigates what is being identified as the "small firm hypothesis," i.e., a hypothesis that the greater the percentage of firms in the U .S. that are "small," the greater the percentage of the population that can be...

This study seeks to expand the scope of that portion of Public Choice courses that involves voting behavior. The study broadens the interpretation of the "rational voter model" so as to include the potential effects of "direct democracy" on the voter participation rate. Direct democracy is...

This brief note develops a pedagogically useful new (albeit still rudimentary) way of teaching the free-rider concept. This simple approach applies the familiar tools of indifference curve analysis to the topic at hand. Since so many students of economics are well versed in indifference curves,...

This study empirically investigates the hypothesis that a higher real ceiling on federal deposit insurance leads to an increased failure rate for savings and loans (S&Ls). After providing a history of federal deposit insurance, a formal model is developed. The empirical analysis thereof examines...

This study empirically investigates determinants of enlistment in the U.S. Army over the period 1974 through 2008. The emphasis is on the impacts of both the availability of free medical care and the challenges of addressing higher medical care inflation. The study estimates reveal that the...

This study of the impacts of economic freedom, regulatory quality, and the relative burden of taxation on the level of per capita real income/GDP among OECD nations over the 2003-2007 period adopts a modified version of the overall economic freedom index computed by The Heritage Foundation...