Previous literature generally finds that greater fiscal decentralization is associated with faster economic growth, improved government performance and stronger constraints on the Leviathan behaviour of governments. Because economic growth critically depends on the presence of good government...

We apply Leeson and Dean's (2009) method for studying democratic dominoes to capitalist spillovers to compare the rates at which capitalism and democracy spread between countries. We find that capitalism and democracy spread at approximately the same modest rate

In standard microeconomic theory, perfect price discrimination is socially efficient. However, this theory neglects that enacting price discrimination is costly to firms. We prove that when this costliness is accounted for, perfect price discrimination is often socially inefficient. Under linear...

We use public choice theory to explain the failure of FEMA and other governmental agencies to carry out effective disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The areas in which we focus are: (1) the tragedy of the anti-commons resulting from layered bureaucracy, (2) a type-two error policy...

When safety regulation makes automobiles safer, drivers may drive more recklessly, creating partially or completely offsetting effects on the overall level of safety. Evidence of these offsetting effects has been hard to find, however, primarily because of the aggregate nature of accident data....

Previous literature has clearly demonstrated the need for sound government policies or ‘institutions’ to promote and support entrepreneurship in a country. This paper explores the role of one such institution – political stability – in boosting entrepreneurial endeavors. A politically...

Previous literature generally finds greater fiscal decentralization associated with faster economic growth. A separate, but related, literature finds greater fiscal decentralization associated with improved government performance, and stronger constraints on the Leviathan behavior of...

This paper empirically evaluates two competing theories of electoral accountability in the context of New Orleans’ 2006 mayoral election. According to the democratic efficiency theory, voters can successfully punish ineffective political agents by removing them from office. In contrast, the...

This paper demonstrates that the optimal structure of taxation in a federal system of governments is one in which only lower level governments are allowed to tax, and the higher level of government receives its revenues as contributions from the lower level governments. The central inefficiency...