We explore whether the composition of the physician work force is impacted by the clinical standards imposed on physicians under medical liability rules. We theorize that physicians of particular backgrounds will be attracted to regions when the malpractice laws of those regions favor the type...

In this paper, we explore the sensitivity in the clinical decisions of physicians to the standards of care expected of them under the law, drawing on the abandonment by states over time of rules holding physicians to standards determined by local customs and the contemporaneous adoption of...

Abstract Despite bringing breakthrough medications to market, pharmaceutical companies incurred criticism during the 1990s and early 2000s because of high prices of many drugs. We argue that the benefits of pharmaceuticals should be evaluated in a dynamic context that extends beyond the patent...

This paper presents axioms for reckoning, as an alternative to expected utility. This reckoning is a preference relation on probability distributions, based on the expectation for the lower of two draws: Prefer X over Y if E[min(U(X1),U(X2))] E[ min( U(Y1), U(Y2)) ]. The axioms are in the...

How should you choose between risky options? This paper proposes reckoning, defined as the expectation for the lower of two draws from a variable's distribution. In symbols this is E[min(X_1,X_2)]. This is a special case of rank-dependent expected utility and provides a tractable alternative to...

This paper investigates a previously unexplored behavioral response to taxation: whether smokers compensate for higher cigarette taxes by enrolling in food stamps. First, we show theoretically that increases in cigarette taxes can induce food stamp take-up of non-enrolled, eligible smoking...