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作者：Andreoni, James; Rao, Justin M.
作者单位：University of California System; University of California San Diego; National Bureau of Economic Research; Yahoo! Inc
摘要：To understand the pure incentives of altruism, economic laboratory research on humans almost always forbids communication between subjects. In reality, however, altruism usually requires interaction between givers and receivers, which clearly must influence choices. Charities, for example, speak of the power of asking. Indeed, evolutionary theories of altruism are built on human sociality. We experimentally examine communication in which one subject allocates $10 between herself and a receiver...
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作者：Gross, Tal; Notowidigdo, Matthew J.
作者单位：Columbia University; University of Chicago
摘要：Anecdotal evidence and several observational studies suggest that out-of-pocket medical costs are pivotal in a large fraction of consumer bankruptcy decisions. In this paper, we assess the contribution of medical costs to household bankruptcy risk by exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in publicly provided health insurance. Using cross-state variation in Medicaid expansions from 1992 to 2004, we find that a 10 percentage point increase in Medicaid eligibility reduces personal bankruptcies...
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作者：Goda, Gopi Shah
作者单位：Stanford University
摘要：In spite of the large expected costs of needing long-term care, only 10-12% of the elderly population has private insurance coverage. Medicaid, which provides means-tested public assistance and pays for almost half of long-term care costs, spends more than $100 billion annually on long-term care. In this paper, I exploit variation in the adoption and generosity of state tax subsidies for private long-term care insurance to determine whether tax subsidies increase private coverage and reduce Me...
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作者：Shin, Donggyun; Solon, Gary
作者单位：Kyung Hee University; Michigan State University
摘要：Many recent studies have investigated trends in U.S. men's earnings volatility, but the studies based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics appear to conflict with each other and with studies based on other data. We critique some of the existing methods of measuring earnings volatility, and we advocate for transparent methods that focus on simple measures of dispersion in year-to-year earnings changes. Applying such measures in the PSID, we find that, apart from the well-known counter-cyclical...
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作者：Durevall, Dick; Henrekson, Magnus
作者单位：Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); University of Gothenburg
摘要：This paper carries out a critical reappraisal of the two contending theories purporting to explain long-run government spending: Wagner's Law and different variants of the ratchet effect. We analyze data spanning from the early 19th century until the present day in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Hence, in contrast to previous studies, we evaluate the validity of Wagner's Law and the ratchet effect hypothesis over a very long time period, starting at the beginning of industrialization. Cointegr...
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作者：Immordino, Giovanni; Pagano, Marco; Polo, Michele
作者单位：Bocconi University; University of Salerno; University of Naples Federico II
摘要：When firms' research can lead to potentially harmful innovations, public intervention may thwart their incentives to undertake research by reducing its expected profitability (average deterrence) and may guide the use of innovation (marginal deterrence). We compare four policy regimes: laissez faire, ex-post penalties and two forms of authorization - lenient and strict. If fines are unbounded, laissez faire is optimal if the social harm from innovation is sufficiently unlikely; otherwise, regu...
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作者：Arin, K. Peren; Chmelarova, Viera; Feess, Eberhard; Wohlschlegel, Ansgar
作者单位：University of Bonn; Massey University; Australian National University; Zayed University; European Central Bank; Frankfurt School Finance & Management
摘要：Following the financial crisis, many countries introduced fiscal stimulus packages making budget consolidations in the future rather challenging. Using a data set for 28 OECD countries spanning the period 1978-2007, we contribute to the literature on success probabilities of consolidation attempts by exploring the impact of corruption, and in particular the interplay of corruption and the choice of the policy instrument. We find that corruption significantly reduces the success rate. When cont...
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作者：Bombardini, Matilde; Trebbi, Francesco
作者单位：University of British Columbia; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：This paper investigates the relationship between the size of interest groups in terms of voter representation and the interest group's campaign contributions to politicians. We uncover a robust hump-shaped relationship between the voting share of an interest group and its contributions to a legislator. This pattern is rationalized in a simultaneous bilateral bargaining model where the larger size of an interest group affects the amount of surplus to be split with the politician (thereby increa...
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作者：Harris, Douglas N.; Sass, Tim R.
作者单位：State University System of Florida; Florida State University; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
摘要：We study the effects of various types of education and training on the productivity of teachers in promoting student achievement. Previous studies on the subject have been hampered by inadequate measures of teacher training and difficulties in addressing the non-random selection of teachers to students and of teachers to training. We address these issues by estimating models that include detailed measures of pre-service and in-service training, a rich set of time-varying covariates, and studen...
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作者：Picard, Pierre M.; Pieretti, Patrice
作者单位：University of Luxembourg; Universite Catholique Louvain
摘要：This paper discusses the effects of pressure policies on offshore financial centers as well as their ability to enforce the compliance of those centers with anti-money laundering regulations. Offshore banks can be encouraged to comply with rigorous monitoring of an investor's identity and the origin of his/her funds when pressure creates a sufficiently high risk of reputational harm to the investor. We show that such pressure policies harm both offshore and onshore investors and can benefit bo...
