The impact of armed conflict may persist long after the end of war, and may include a lasting institutional legacy. We use a novel dataset from rural Burundi to examine the impact of local exposure to conflict on institutional quality, and try to ‘unbundle’ institutions by...

Federal environmental laws encourage private citizens to act like "private attorney generals" and to sue a firm. This citizen group competes over the rewards of levels of regulation and enforcement. The firm can reduce its output to curtail the likelihood of losing the contest. This paper...

Abstract Integrated economic and ecologic modeling systems can yield more precise predictions about the underlying physical system and the risks imposed to humans and the environment. But do more accurate risk assessments matter for environmental policy that is in part influenced by the...

Genetically modified (GM) foods have been engulfed in considerable controversy, and the early optimism has been dampened. Information issues—labeling and asymmetric information—are central to the GM-food debate. Furthermore, it is important to understand the reaction in developed countries to...

Expected utility theory, prospect theory, and most other models of risky choice are based on the fundamental premise that individuals choose among risky prospects by balancing the value of the possible consequences. These models, therefore, require that the value of a risky prospect lie between...

This paper explores to what extent secondary policy issues are influenced by electoral incentives. We develop a two-dimensional political agency model, in which a politician decides on both a frontline policy issue and a secondary policy issue. The model predicts when the incumbent should...