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In this paper, we use a two-period one-to-one matching model with incomplete information to examine the effect of changes in divorce costs on marital dissolution. Each individual who has a nontransferable expected utility about the quality of each potential marriage decides whether to marry or to remain single at the beginning of the first period. Individuals married in the first period learn the qualities of their marriages at the beginning of the second period and then decide whether to stay married or to unilaterally divorce. We show that, for any society, there exist matching environments where the probability of the marital dissolution does not reduce divorce costs under gender-optimal matching rules. In such environments, an allocation effect of divorce costs with an ambiguous sign outweighs an incentive effect that is always negative. We also show that these results may also arise under stable matching rules that are not gender optimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Essay, we analyze how evidentiary concerns dominate actors' behavior. Our findings offer an important refinement to the conventional wisdom in law and economics literature, which assumes that legal rules can always be fashioned to achieve socially optimal outcomes. We show that evidentiary motivations will often lead actors to engage in socially suboptimal behavior when doing so is likely to increase their chances of prevailing in court. Because adjudicators must base decisions on observable and verifiable information - or, in short, evidence - rational actors will always strive to generate evidence that can later be presented in court and will increase their chances of winning the case regardless of the cost they impose on third parties and society at large. Accordingly, doctors and medical institutions will often refer patients to undertake unnecessary and even harmful examinations just to create a record demonstrating that the doctors or medical institutions went beyond the call of duty in treating them. Owners of land and intellectual property may let harmful activities continue much longer than necessary just to gather stronger evidence conceming the harms they suffer. And even the police will often choose to allow offenders to carry out crimes in order to improve the chance of a conviction. The effect we identify is pervasive. It can be found in virtually all areas of the law. Furthermore, there is no easy way to eliminate or correct it. However, the evidentiary phenomenon we discuss also has positive side effects: it reduces adjudication costs for judges and juries and improves the accuracy of court processes. In some cases, these improvements will exceed the social cost of suboptimal behavior. In other contexts, however, the social cost will far outweigh the benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a study which investigated the question of whether U.S. college courses in political economy provide an introduction to all of the field's major schools of thought. It was found that any given instructor typically did not provide a wide range of views. A broad perspective could be obtained by taking multiple courses in political economy, since most departments offer a fairly diverse set of classes on the subject. It is noted, however, that the average college student is unlikely to take more than one of these, and is therefore likely to receive a lopsided view of the field.

This paper studies both pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors affecting happiness—an issue that has sparked a great deal of interest in the economic literature. Using an ordered Probit model and the 1998 general social survey (GSS) data, the paper empirically demonstrates the extent to which socioeconomic and demographic variables along with faith and emotionally based factors may determine happiness. The 1998 survey was conducted nearly at the conclusion of one of the longest economic expansion—a high income low inflation era in the US history. However, the findings tend to suggest that the absolute value of nominal income insignificantly, but non-pecuniary elements (faith and emotionally based factors including financial security) significantly determine happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the shortcoming of economic literature in the U.S. when it comes to incomplete contracts and precautions to be made to reduce the likelihood of an accidental breach. Discussion of the similarities between the newer literature and the older law-and-economics analysis; Impact of a possible renegotiation on the decision of a legal regime to give parties the right incentives to make an efficient choice between performance and breach; Differences between reliance investments and other kinds of precautions.

The sample consisted of 1,759 references found in 78 research articles from the 1999 volumes of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the Journal of Political Economy, and The Quarterly Journal of Economics. The median article was written by two authors, was 27 pages long and contained 30 citations. Scholarly journals accounted for 58 percent (median) of the items used, with monographs (15 percent), and working papers (14 percent) being the other major formats. Periodical and book publishers accounted for about 76 percent of the citations with research institutes and organizations (12 percent) following in importance. Government documents and publications represented about 3 percent (median) of the citations. Nearly 60 percent (median) of the citations were published within the last ten years, but the range was 208 years from the publication date of the earliest cited item to the publication date of the latest cited item. The median oldest year cited in an article was 1965 with a mean of 1952. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the economic fundamentals of bank runs in the U.S. Alternative theoretical explanations for the determinants of bank runs; Model of bank runs that is standard in the economic literature; Conditions under which multiple equilibria arise; Policy implications of bank runs.

Focuses on a study which evaluated the comprehensiveness and composition of university library holdings of economics journals in the U.S. Discussion on the importance of library resources; Description of methodology; Types of schools considered; Summary statistics on the library holdings of schools; List of the widely held economics journals by the schools.

We evaluate plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) policies currently implemented across the U.S. and the potential for these policies to facilitate widespread PEV diffusion. We examine the relationship between overlapping regulatory and fiscal policies at the federal and state levels of government. We argue that the current suite of policies is not as effective as it could be, and potentially more expensive. Our analysis suggests the existence of a tradeoff between the goals of increasing the market penetration of PEVs and that of limiting greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty vehicle fleet. The way federal and state policies interact puts those two goals at odds, at least in the short-term. Drawing from the policy and economics literatures, we summarize a series of recommendations and incentives that could deliver a more balanced approach to the achievement of those two policy goals. We conclude with some research suggestions. • We examine four main PEV deployment policies currently in place in the U.S. • Policy objectives are to accelerate deployment of PEVs and reduce greenhouse gases. • We identify the conflicting incentives those policies offer. • We address the implications from the lack of their coordination. • We propose ways to better integrate the policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]