The income convergence literature suggests that poor countries or regions can catch-up to rich ones conditional on sharing certain characteristics with rich countries or regions. Good institutions such as strong property rights and rule-of-law are key among those characteristics. Globalization...

Public managers who operate within cross-jurisdictional governance regimes face substantial difficulties in facilitating network collaboration. Scholars have long suggested that non-congruence of geographic borders can create coordination problems among the political communities within...

The SIC sectors identified for direct, indirect, and in kind rent seeking activity have been identified and verified empirically in Sobel & Garrett (2002) by comparing capital counties to non-capital counties. We convert these industries from SIC to NAICS codes and provide measures of direct,...

An island nation in north-western Europe, the Republic of Ireland is one of the highest income countries in the world. According to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Database, Ireland is among the ten wealthiest countries in the world as measured by gross domestic...

The literature on racial “peer effects” suggests that diversity improves at least some students’ school performance. However, a literature in economic development posits that diversity may negatively affect school performance by undermining the efficient provision of education. This paper...

International travel clearly increases human interaction over space and exposes societies to foreign influences, foreign ideas, and foreign institutions. Does international travel promote institutional change in a traveler's home country? This paper uses panel data from 149 countries to test the...

This volume contains a collection of papers by economists which examine the various strategies for cutting costs and improving productivity in higher education in the United States. The dramatic increase in the cost of attending most colleges and universities in recent years has led to...

Introduction: The American Higher Education Problem -- Introduction: The American Higher Education Problem -- Evaluating and Debating Causes -- Financial Aid in Theory and Practice -- Price Discrimination and Rising Costs: Is There Any Relationship? -- Cost Inflation in Intercollegiate...