During recessions, state governments frequently face substantial midyear budget shortfalls. Numerous states are now experiencing such crises again. These fiscal crises are often blamed on the cyclical decline in revenue growth or reductions in federal aid. Others have suggested that enacting...

We examine a panel of divinity school enrollments to explore the motivations of prospective clergy considering post-graduate training in preparation for the ministry. Employing the fixed-effects within estimator allows us to see pecuniary motivations while controlling for the differences between...

Ohio s public pension system comprises five state-level plans that have actuarial funding ratios ranging between 67 and 84 percent. Pension plan funding levels are a proxy for the ability of a pension plan to fund its promised benefit payments without additional resources. Volatile and uncertain...

Recent studies examining the relationship between legislative majorities and state budgets have presented mixed results. We provide new insight on this relationship by employing stochastic frontier analysis to model the maximum potential budgets that could be feasibly produced given a set of...

This paper presents a classroom experiment where students participate in a simulated futures market. This experiment can be run in about an hour and allows students to interact, negotiate, try different strategies, see how their accounts are closed, and observe how spot and futures markets...

How can societies advance social justice? Many of the goals of social justice are addressed by research on economic freedom, including social tolerance and protection of minority rights, promotion of democracy and political freedoms, and income inequality. We survey the academic literature on...

J.K Rowling's series of books about the underage wizard Harry Potter is an exceptionally effective tool for introducing students to the key concepts of public choice. By keeping political figures at the forefront of the story, Rowling encourages students to recognize the differences between the...

This research investigates the relationship between public policy and firm deaths in the U.S. States. Policies that promote firm births may increase or decrease firm deaths. We use components of the Economic Freedom of North America index (EFNA) as a metric to evaluate the relationship between...