This paper examines and tests the implications of the court congestion hypothesis of Posner (1972) and Priest (1989). This hypothesis suggests that the effects of delay reduction programs may be largely or completely offset by a resulting increase in demand for litigation. We also analyze the...

Recent research indicates that markets do not value bilingual skills. These results, however, are not robust across all labor markets, and one notable counter-instance is the market for registered nurses. As the Hispanic population grows in the United States, health care providers will encounter...

This study investigates the educational attainment of children of immigrants in the United States. By employing a more detailed classification of children of immigrants, we examine whether a foreign place of birth of either parent or child affects the child's educational attainment. Our results...

We examine whether abortion removes from the population those infants most at risk of homicide. As part of our identification strategy, we find that abortion reduces the number of unwanted births, estimating that 1 percent increase in the abortion ratio reduces unwanted births by approximately...

This paper examines whether obesity is associated with the likelihood of arrest. We hypothesize that obese individuals are less likely to commit crime and be arrested because their body weights may prevent them from successfully engaging in certain criminal activities, particularly those that...

The positions taken by prosecutors and defense lawyers on proposed jury instructions on lesser-included offenses provide evidence that juries do not follow the law strictly. This paper develops a simple model of expected utility to predict how jurors make their decisions. The model explains a...