Die Infrastruktur der deutschen Autobahnen ist von zentraler Bedeutung für den Wirtschafts-verkehr, den Tourismus und die Mobilität der Bürgerinnen und Bürger. Ein zentraler Bestandteil dieser Infrastruktur sind Haltepunkte entlang der Fernstraßen. Autobahnraststätten und Autohöfe dienen...

In the 1990s, the World Bank and other development financiers supported a power sector reform framework emphasizing restructuring or unbundling of utilities, creation of regulators, private sector participation (both in terms of financing and managing the operations of power networks and...

We examine how occupational licensing shapes entrepreneurship in Germany’s crafts sector. We exploit two sequential reforms that shifted entry barriers across occupations: a 2004 deregulation that relaxed licensing requirements and a 2020 partial re-regulation that reinstated them for a subset...

We analyze the impact of occupational deregulation on the wages of licensed workers. To do so, we exploit a deregulation policy in the German craft sector that removed the master certificate as a requirement for starting a business in about half of the craft occupations. Specifically, we examine...

In 2023, after a full 20 years, the Republic of Croatia adopted a new legal framework for maritime domain with the enactment of the new Maritime Domain and Seaports Act. The new act addresses numerous technical issues related to Croatia's maritime domain and aligns concessions on maritime domain...

Exploiting variation created by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), we document the effects of immigrant legalization on mobility investments and economic outcomes. DACA increased both geographic and job mobility of young immigrants, leading them to high paying labor markets and...

Non-fungible token (NFT) markets promised to accurately distribute royalties to creators on secondary sales of digital assets. They highlighted immutable provenance and offered smart contracts on underlying blockchains. However, recent trends point toward NFT markets moving away from secondary...

This paper estimates the impact of occupational licensing at the extensive margin (existence) and intensive margin (qualifications) on the occupational mobility of US workers. Using 2015-2022 Current Population Survey data on worker occupational choices matched to licensing-policy data, I show...

In the early twentieth century, predominantly white union barbers in Arkansas implemented voluntary regulations that dictated business practices to create a voluntary cartel. Black and other minority barbers who often had more success than white barbers prior to unionization tended to ignore...

I investigate the effect of occupational licensing requirements on the size of the U.S. legal profession. In particular, I develop a method to estimate the relative quantitative importance of individual licensing requirements. I report three primary findings. First, I find that the bar exam has...

Spectrum auctions in the United Kingdom have been mostly successful in achieving their objectives, suggesting that potential lessons can be learned for auctions elsewhere, given the mixed picture worldwide of positive and negative experiences. Good auction design benefits from learning both...

Royalty payment has been under heated debate in both the traditional art market and the newly emerged non-fungible tokens (NFTs) markets. In this paper, we investigate the role of royalty payments in the trading market with creators and buyers and explore how NFT platforms should design royalty...

In the U.S., occupational licensing is much more prevalent in the public sector than in the private sector, but the influence of occupational regulation for public sector workers has not been analyzed in detail. Our study initially examines the probability of a licensed worker selecting into the...

Contractual renegotiation is an emerging and significant theme in the context of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) due to its high incidence and potential impact on the sustainability of partnership models. This study presents a systematic review using a qualitative meta-synthesis method to...

This paper examines the relative advantages of allocating spectrum by auction or without licensing. The debate over how to allocate the spectrum will at times rest fundamentally on the challenges of choosing between alternative technologies. This paper notes that economic benefits of a highly...

This paper confirms a positive relationship between the aggressiveness of bids and the probability of renegotiating concession contracts. We use a database of 113 concessions awarded in Peru, finding that a 1% increase in bidding aggressiveness increases the probability of contract renegotiation...

The analysis of occupational licensing has concentrated largely on its labor market and consumer welfare effects. By contrast, relatively little is known about how occupational licensing laws originated or the key factors in their evolution. In this paper, we study the determinants of U.S....

"The Licensing Racket is a critique of the US system of professional licensing boards, which oversee a range of occupations and tens of millions of workers. The book combines legal and economic research with nearly two hundred interviews and observation of licensing board meetings, treating jobs...

"The daily delights and conveniences that any city dweller has become accustomed to, such as cold water bottles on a summer afternoon in the park or a popsicle from a tray while sitting in traffic, do not come cheap for those offering them. With a little initiative and very little start-up...