Recent studies examining the relationship between legislative majorities and state budgets have presented mixed results. We provide new insight on this relationship by employing stochastic frontier analysis to model the maximum potential budgets that could be feasibly produced, given a set of...

Examining the economics of entrepreneurship from the perspectives of productive versus unproductive entrepreneurial behavior and the role of institutions in economic outcomes, the authors in this book seek to advance the research on institutions by providing a simple framework to analyze the...

Caplan holds that governments are Leviathans, seeking to extend their power by increasing government expenditures beyond the level preferred by voters. We extend Caplan's model by examining the real (percentage) growth rates of government. We also examine whether government size increases at an...

In developing countries with high levels of corruption, people are often forced into small-business venturing or survivalist entrepreneurship because larger, more efficient firms do not exist. In developed countries, however, low corruption means that people choose entrepreneurship as a better...

The authors developed a classroom experiment on exchange rate determination appropriate for undergraduate courses in macroeconomics and international economics. In the experiment, students represent citizens from different countries and need to obtain currency to purchase goods. By participating...

This paper provides an exploratory analysis into factors contributing to differences across states in recidivism rates. We provide the first such examination that incorporates differences in economic freedom. Using a panel data set from 1998-2010, we find that higher levels of economic freedom...

This paper applies the insights of Austrian economics to an important issue in local political economy. Basic economic theory holds that greater competition produces superior outcomes in private goods markets. The same should be true in the “markets” for the output of local government....