Are work values a cause (Weber) or consequence (Marx) of the economic environment? The collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 provides a unique opportunity to investigate this link. Using data collected from an employee survey conducted in over 340 workplaces in Armenia, Azerbaijan and...

Do younger workers in transition economies have a different work ethic from those who were trained and employed in the former socialist economy? Is there a positive link between work ethic and earnings among workers in transition economies? We address these questions using data collected from...

More and more states have passed laws that allow individuals to use marijuana for medical purposes. There is an ongoing, heated policy debate over whether these laws have increased marijuana use among non-patients. In this paper, I address that question empirically by studying marijuana...

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that allow individuals to use marijuana for medical purposes. There is an ongoing heated policy debate over whether these laws have increased marijuana use among non-patients. In this paper, I address that question empirically by...

Medical marijuana laws generate significant policy debates regarding drug policy. In particular, if marijuana is a complement or a gateway drug to hard drugs, these laws would increase not only the usage of marijuana but hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. In this paper, I empirically study...

How do attitudes affect performance? Numerous studies show that individuals who exhibit an internal locus of control perform better than those characterized by an external locus of control. We use survey data collected in two regions in Russia to determine whether these same results hold among...

What is the relative importance of cognitive and non-cognitive traits in accounting for differences in worker performance in former socialist economies? We use survey data collected in 2005 from over 4790 employees in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan to construct three different performance...

We develop a theoretical framework where the chance of any given democratic society maintaining its democratic status is determined by two key factors: economic security and democratic capital. Our model predicts democracy breakdown is more likely (1) the lower the level of democratic capital,...