We examine how state governments adjusted spending in response to the large temporary increase in federal grants under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). We concentrate our analysis on ARRA highway grants, which were especially likely to crowd out states’ own highway funding given the lack of matching requirements and according to past research on federal highway grants. Th...

I study how consumers respond to competing pieces of information that differ in their degree of complexity and informativeness. In particular, I study the choice of refrigerators in the U.S., where a mandatory disclosure labeling program provides detailed information about energy cost, and a certification labeling program provides a simple binary-star rating related to energy use. I find that t...

We investigate the long-run impact of environmental regulations on the intraindustry distribution of firm-level productivity and the resulting aggregate variables. In a general-equilibrium model that accounts for endogenous entry/exit of heterogeneous firms, neither the average productivity of firms nor the mass of firms is independent of the choice of policy instruments (i.e. emissions tax vs....

This paper uses a direct-projections approach to estimate the effect of capital gains taxation on realizations at state level and then develops framework for determining revenue-maximizing rates federal level. We find that elasticity revenues with respect tax rate over 10-year period is −0.5 −0.3, indicating cuts do not pay themselves 5 percentage point increase would yield $18 $30 billion in a...

We show that the fiscal authorities of high-tax countries can lack incentives to combat profit shifting tax havens. Instead, they have focus their enforcement efforts on relocating profits booked by multinationals in other countries, crowding out transactions shift havens, and reducing global payments multinational companies. The predictions our model are motivated supported analysis two new da...

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 ...

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) can address environmental externalities when mandatory regulations are unattainable or undesirable. The extent to which VEPs succeed at improving environmental quality depends on participation levels from firms and consumers. We examine the factors that lead to a successful VEP by studying participation levels in residential green electricity programs. Am...

Recent advances have shed new light on how the Q50 homeoproteins act in Drosophila. These transcription factors have remarkably similar and promiscuous DNA-binding specificities in vitro; yet they each specify distinct developmental fates in vivo. One current model suggests that, because the Q50 homeoproteins have distinct biological functions, they must each regulate different target genes. Ac...

This paper uses panel Granger causality tests to study the relationship between sector specific FDI and CO2 emissions. Using a sample of 18 Latin American countries for the 1980-2007 period, we find causality running from FDI in polluting intensive industries (“the dirty sector”) to CO2 emissions per capita. This result is robust to controlling for other factors associated with CO2 emissions an...

Over the past several decades, significant efforts have been made to regulate the use of resource and pollution in most industrialized countries, and the stringency of pollution regulations has continued to increase globally. At the same time, physical and social infrastructures are influenced by changes in the use of resources which contribute to the wealth of many regions. Technical progress ...