This paper estimates agglomeration benefits based on city productivity differentials across five OECD countries (Germany, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States). It highlights the relationship between cities’ governmental fragmentation and productivity, and represents the first...

We estimate direct and spillover effects of social distancing measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19 at the U.S. county level using mobility indicators based on cellphone data. We find that spillover effects range between a third and a half of the direct effect depending on the...

We examine firm responses to location-based hiring subsidies. We leverage institutional features of the California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC), a large-scale business incentive program that incorporates best practices from prior job creation policies. The CCTC award selection procedure combines...

There has been an increasing reliance on sales taxation in both the states and counties in the United States. In this paper, we are examining the relationship between state and local sales taxation and business activity in the U.S. by utilizing county-level data for the period 2002-2011. We have...

In addition to federal firearms legislation applicable to all firearms manufacturers operating in the United States, each of the 50 U.S. states has its own state, and sometimes additional municipal, firearms laws. Conceivably, the relative strictness or laxity of these laws influences location...

Evidence exists that welfare recipients migrate between states to seek more generous benefits, potentially leading states to lower AFDC benefits to avoid such welfare migration. Taken further, this raises the specter of states competitively lowering benefits in reaction to similar moves by other...

Unlike most of the world’s federations – including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, South Africa and numerous others – the United States has no system of federal equalization grants in place to reduce fiscal disparities among its subnational governments. Only at the state level, through...

Oates' (1972) decentralization theorem holds that local governments will do a superior job at providing the efficient quantity of public goods. Brennan and Buchanan (1980) suggest that "the potential for fiscal exploitation varies inversely with the number of competing governmental units in the...

Competition among state and local governments to lure businesses has attracted considerable interest from economists, as well as legislators and policy makers. This paper quantifies the role of plant relocations in the geographic redistribution of manufacturing employment and examines the...

Tort and civil liability reform has been a hotly debated issue across US states. This has spawned a large theoretical and empirical academic literature that evaluates the implications of such reform and the impact that it can have on various aspects of an economy. This study adds to that...