Economic evaluation of projects involving changes in mortality risk conventionally assumesthat lives are statistical, i.e., that risks and policy-induced changes in risk are small andsimilar among a population. In reality, baseline mortality risks and policy-induced changes inrisk often differ...

For two independent principles of intergenerational equity, the implied discount rate equals the growthrate of real per-capita income, say 2%, thus falling right into the range suggested by the U.S. Office ofManagement and Budget. To prove this, we develop a simple tool to evaluate small policy...

We examine the relationship between common sources of airborne pollution and population mortality in present day England. The current air quality limit values are low by both historical and international standards, and these are set at levels which are believed not to be harmful to health. We...

Income is an important correlate for numerous phenomena in the social sciences. But manysurveys collect data with just a single question covering all forms of income. This raisesissues of quality, and these are heightened when individuals are asked about the householdtotal rather than own income...

The March Current Population Survey (CPS) is the primary data source for estimation oflevels and trends in labor earnings and income inequality in the USA. Time-inconsistencyproblems related to top coding in theses data have led many researchers to use the ratio ofthe 90th and 10th percentiles...

Recent theories of economic growth have stressed the role of externalities in generating growth. Using data from the Census Bureau that tracks all employers in the whole U.S. private sector economy, we examine the impact of these externalities, as measured by entrepreneurial activity, on...

This paper outlines why program evaluation should follow well-respected scientific standards and why it should be performed by independent researchers.

The fact that raising taxes can increase taxed labor supply through income effects is frequently used to justify greater public good provision than indicated by traditional, compensated analyses. We develop a model including multiple public goods and taxes and derive consistent measures of the...

There is plenty of evidence across the EU to suggest that young people from poorerbackgrounds are less likely to attend tertiary education than their better-off peers. Thiscorrelation is often used to justify monetary transfers to families with students. It isnot clear, however, that these...

The evaluation of labor market policies has become an important issue in many Europeancountries. In recent years, a number of them have opened their administrative databases forevaluation studies. The advantages of administrative data are straightforward: they areaccurate, contain a large number...