The current British Government's "Big Society" plan is based on the idea that granting more freedom to local communities and volunteers will compensate for a withdrawal of public agencies and spending. This idea is grounded on a widely held belief about the relationship between government and...

This paper provides a first theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of psychotherapy on individual productivity. We build a simple model in which a deterioration of mental health endogenously causes a decrease in productivity, which is counterbalanced by psychotherapy. We test our...

The United States witnessed an increase in pre-tax inequality, a rise in the wealth-to-income ratio, and an extraordinary rise in top income inequality in the last four decades. However, income and wealth tax rates did not increase. To explain this, we build a political economy model in which...

Working as a volunteer is a widespread phenomenon that has both individual and societal benefits. In this paper, we identify the wage returns to working for free by exploiting exogenous variation in rainfall across local area districts in England, Scotland and Wales. Instrumental variables...

Ideas about what is "fair" above and beyond the individuals' position in the income ladder determine preferences for redistribution. We study the dynamic evolution of different economies in which redistributive policies, perception of fairness, inequality and growth are jointly determined. We...

We present a dynamic life-cycle model of women's labor supply, marriage, and fertility choices that explicitly incorporates mental and physical health. Correlated mental and physical health production functions are simultaneously estimated, including the endogenous decisions to seek...

Ideas about what is 'fair' above and beyond the individuals position in the income ladder determine preferences for redistribution. We study the dynamic evolution of different economies in which redistributive polices, perception of fairness, inequality and growth are jointly determined. We show...

Ideas about what is "fair" above and beyond the individual's position in the income ladder influence preferences for redistribution. We study the dynamic evolution of different economies in which redistributive policies, perceptions of fairness, inequality and growth are jointly determined. We...

Working as a volunteer is a widespread phenomenon that has both individual and societal benefits. In this paper, we identify the wage returns to working for free by exploiting exogenous variation in rainfall across local area districts in England, Scotland and Wales. Instrumental variables...

The United States witnessed an increase in pre-tax inequality, a rise in the wealth-to-income ratio, and an extraordinary rise in top income inequality in the last four decades. However, income and wealth tax rates did not increase. To explain this, we build a political economy model in which...