Studies of the effect of government spending on unemployment are potentially confounded by reverse causality. To address the endogeneity problem, we exploit variation in a porkbarrel road-building program, and find that higher government expenditure on road-building substantially reduces local unemployment. JEL Codes: E24, E62, H30, H54,

In this paper we study the mechanics of “leading by example” in teams. Leadership is beneficial for the entire team when agents are conformists, i.e., dislike effort differentials. We also show how leadership can arise endogenously and discuss what type of leader benefits a team most. JEL codes: C72; D23; D63; J31; L23.

The development of synaptic function was examined at auditory nerve synapses in the rostromedial region of the cochlear nucleus magnocellularis of the chick. EPSCs were studied beginning at embryonic day 12 (E12), when synaptic transmission was first observed, through E19. The amplitude of evoked EPSCs produced by AMPA receptor (AMPA-R) increased 30-fold over this age range, whereas NMDA recept...

A T-lymphocyte-specific enhancer located 13 kb upstream of the murine CD4 gene was recently shown to be required for the developmentally regulated expression of CD4. We have previously identified three nuclear protein binding sites in this enhancer; one of these sites, CD4-3, is essential for expression and contains two E-box core motifs (CANNTG) adjacent to each other in the sequence TAACAGGTG...

It is commonly held that hearing generally begins on incubation day 12 (E12) in the chicken embryo (Gallus domesticus). However, little is known about the response properties of cochlear ganglion neurons for ages younger than E18. We studied ganglion neurons innervating the basilar papilla of embryos (E12-E18) and hatchlings (P13-P15). We asked first, when do primary afferent neurons begin to e...

This paper finds that political freedom has a significant and non-linear effect on domestic terrorism, but this effect is not significant in the case of transnational terrorism. Some of our other novel findings are that while geography and fractionalization may limit a county’s ability to curb terrorism, the presence of strong legal institutions deters it. JEL classification codes: D74, H56

This Online Appendix to the paper titled “Progressive Learning” presents the proof of Lemma 0, an extension of our equilibrium characterization allowing for mixed strategies, an analysis of the full commitment case, and details for Example 4 showing that path dependence can arise even when shocks are ergodic. JEL Classification Codes: C73, D86

Money doesn’t seem to make us happy for reasons of social comparison and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a variety of economic and social activities, rendering policy conclusions more difficult. JEL Classification Codes: D01, D31, H00, ...

This paper analyses the relationship between governance, asset allocation, and risk among state and local government-operated pension systems in the United States. It is argued that governance influences investment decisions and risk profiles of public sector pension systems, creating the potential for agency problems to exist between decision makers, plan members, and taxpayers. JEL Codes: J2,...

I provide a typology of social capital, breaking it down into seven more fundamental forms of capital: information capital, brokerage capital, coordination and leadership capital, bridging capital, favor capital, reputation capital, and community capital. I discuss how most of these forms of social capital can be identified using different network-based measures. JEL Classification Codes: D85, ...