We exploit a change in lending laws to estimate the causal effect of restricting access to payday loans on liquor sales. Leveraging lender- and liquor store-level data, we find that the changes reduce sales, with the largest decreases at stores located nearest to lenders. By focusing on states...

Prior to the financial crisis, insurance was the only financial service that did not have a federal regulator but relied almost exclusively on state insurance regulators. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) began a process to address this lack of...

To have an extensive commercial drone industry and passenger drone industry, there need to be drone highways—aerial corridors—crisscrossing towns, suburbs, and cities. However, if the FAA were to extend these drone corridors unilaterally, it would face opposition not only from landowners but...

The European Union is increasing the number of laws which apply to the providers of digital services, in particular to digital platforms, and each of them are based on a specific oversight and enforcement framework. As many of those new laws overlap, it is key for the effectiveness of oversight...

From employment to education, many areas of our daily lives have gone virtual, including the virtual workplace and virtual classes. By comparison, the way we generate, deliver, and consume electricity is an anachronism. And the electric industry’s outdated business model and regulatory...

Solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to mitigate climate change, secure America’s energy independence, and create millions of green jobs. In the absence of a price on carbon emissions, however, these long-term benefits will not be realized without near-term...

The Catawba Digital Economic Zone (“CDEZ”) achieved a number of firsts when it launched in late 2022: the world’s first entirely virtual special jurisdiction devoted to financial services using technologies like blockchains, cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and artificial intelligence...

There is now a considerable body of literature on decentralization in diverse national contexts. Ascertaining factors that drive local accountability and performance have been the key concerns of these studies. Diverse ethodological instruments and approaches have been used—from large-n...

Some states treat a same-sex marriage as legally equal to a marriage between a man and a woman. Other states prohibit legal recognition of same-sex marriages in their constitutions. In every state that has a constitutional restriction against same-sex marriage, the amendment was passed by a...