This paper considers a situation in which an attacker can select among two possible targets for a single concentrated attack after observing the level of defense at each. Despite the attacker’s chance of success being determined by a proportional contest success function, if each target is...

This paper presents a model of real effort provision in conjunction with rational social preference theory to predict how individuals exert effort to replace an exogenously determined “state of the world” with a preferred social outcome. Binary dictator games and real effort tasks are used...

This paper considers a contest setting in which a challenger chooses between one of two contests to enter after observing the level of defense at each. Despite the challenger’s chance of success being determined by a proportional contest success function, the defenders effectively find...

Summary Local, state, and federal governments, along with the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee, spent roughly $1.9 billion in planning and hosting the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Event promoters suggested that the Games would increase employment in the state by 35,000 job-years. We investigate...

In this dissertation, I investigate how government policies influence an individual's decision to search for and accept a job and/or crime opportunity.Chapter 1 looks at how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. The...