This paper relates the erosion of the custom of shotgun marriage to the legalization of abortion and the increased availability of contraception to unmarried women in the United States. The decline in shotgun marriage accounts for a significant fraction of the increase in out-of-wedlock first...

The authors study the positive and normative effects of counterfeiting, i.e., trademark infringement, in markets where cons umers are not deceived by forgeries. Consumers are willing to pay mor e for counterfeits than for generic merchandise of similar quality be cause they value the prestige...