We analyze the relationship between senate malapportionment and the allocation of the US federal budget to the states during the period 1978-2002. A substantial literature originating from the influential paper by Atlas et al. (1995) finds that small and overrepresented states get significantly larger shares of federal funds. We show that these studies suffer from fundamental identification pro...

We analyze the relationship between senate malapportionment and the allocation of the US federal budget to the states during the period 1978-2002. A substantial literature originating from the influential paper by Atlas et al. (1995) finds that small and overrepresented states get significantly larger shares of federal funds. We show that these studies suffer from fundamental identification pro...

We study fiscal rules using a sovereign default model. A debt-brake (spread-brake) rule imposes ceiling on the deficit when debt (spread) is above threshold. For our benchmark calibration, similar gains can be achieved with optimal or spread brake. However, for “Union” of heterogeneous economies, common brake generates larger than Furthermore, from abandoning may significant economies that are ...

Cold shock proteins (Csps) from mesophiles and thermophiles differ widely in their stabilities, but show close structural similarity. Sequence variations involve mainly charged groups, supporting the view that ion pairs contribute significantly to the free energy of stabilization. Based on the known 3D structure of mesophilic Bacillus subtilis CspB and the modeled structure of hyperthermophilic...

Elected representatives have little incentive to pursue the interests of those electing them once they are elected. This well-known principle-agent problem leads, in a variety of theories of government, to nonoptimally large levels of government expenditure. An implication is that budgetary rules are seen as necessary to constrain politicians’ tax and spending behavior. Popular among such const...

Is our nation safe from terrorist attacks? This paper examines the effectiveness of U.S. federal grants in reducing domestic vulnerability to terrorism since the 9/11 attacks. I derive a model for allocating federal funds to States based on targets within the State, the government budget, and three parameters specific to a target type the probability of attack, the expected damage upon attack, ...

Let (S0, S1, . . . ) be a supermartingale relative to a nondecreasing sequence of σ-algebras (H60,H61, . . . ), with S0 6 0 almost surely (a.s.) and differences Xi := Si − Si−1. Suppose that for every i = 1, 2, . . . there exist H6(i−1)-measurable r.v.’s Ci−1 and Di−1 and a positive real number si such that Ci−1 6 Xi 6 Di−1 and Di−1−Ci−1 6 2si a.s. Then for all natural n and all functions f sat...