Sunset provisions are clauses embedded in legislation that allow a piece of legislation or a regulatory board to expire on a certain date unless the legislature takes affirmative action to renew the legislation or board. The time between enactment or renewal and the next sunset date varies from...

Regulatory agencies are delegated powers to execute statutory mandates. These powers vary widely across states in terms of how agencies are constrained by procedural requirements found in state Administrative Procedure Acts (APAs) and related statutory provisions and executive orders. Thus,...

A number of recent papers study the impact of institutions, trade and geography known as “deep determinants” of economic development using cross-section data. This paper instead employs a panel data approach to examine the impact of these three determinants on per capita income. Our approach...

This paper investigates the consequences of religion for economic development. In particular, we examine whether religious attitudes, beliefs, participation and preference contribute to differences in per capita income across countries. Using a large scale international survey on values and...

The recent literature on tenure choice has been focusing increasingly on the information aspects of the tenure choice dec ision. However, despite the obvious information channel between social networks and tenure choice, the relationship has drawn little attention in academic research. Since the...

This paper uses a modified contractual model to study the role of religion-via entry and exit costs-in shaping preferences for getting and staying married. The religions that are analyzed are two "collective" religions: Judaism and Christianity. The paper takes a historical and contemporary look...