We investigate the effect of certificate-of-need (CON) laws on the quality of hospitals. As of 2015, 36 states and the District of Columbia required healthcare providers to seek approval from a state s healthcare regulator before making any major capital expenditures. These requirements restrict...

Policymakers behavioral economics toolbox contains both paternalistic and nonpaternalistic nudges. In the case of paternalistic nudges, policymakers identify the optimal choice for consumers and then push consumers toward that choice by setting default options or manipulating loss aversion. In...

Western elites and the general public agree that foreign intervention is needed to halt the dramatic rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Policymakers hope to militarily defeat ISIS while also resolving the civil crises in Iraq and Syria that allowed the group to flourish. In the...

To date, the literature on cigarette excise taxation has focused on demand, its elasticity, and state revenue from the taxes. By examining the factors that influence cigarette excise tax rates across U.S. states, this paper helps to fill the under-researched aspect of cigarette taxation....

This study uses a controlled laboratory experiment to analyze the effects of conflict on economic growth and development. Participants were given control of a small, virtual civilization and provided incentives to develop their civilization under various conflict scenarios. The findings suggest...

Objective: To identify how consumption of 12 goods – alcohol, cigarettes, fast food, items sold at vending machines, purchases of food away from home, cookies, cakes, chips, candy, donuts, bacon, and carbonated soft drinks – varies across the income distribution by calculating their...

This study uses a panel of NCAA Division I athletic department revenue and expenditure data from 225 public colleges and universities to empirically investigate the behavior of athletic departments over the period 2006-2011. Three empirical relationships were explored: (1) how changes in total...

This study uses a panel of NCAA Division I athletic department revenue and expenditure data from 227 public colleges and universities to empirically investigate the effects of conference realignment over the period 2006-2011. The results show that schools moving into automatic-qualifying...

Creating effective public policy is difficult. The myriad unintended and secondary consequences of tax and expenditure policy create much confusion regarding both the source of and solutions to social problems. Further adding to the complexity of effective policy making is the fact that policy...