This paper addresses the growing literature on the comparative statics of rhetorical equilibrium, using humor as the animating device that corrodes existing norms for understanding the commercial system. Three motivations for economics jokes are advanced: to be funny, to illustrate, and to mock. A… read more about this publication »
PurposeSingle-party regimes increasingly use Subnational Performance Assessments (SPAs) – rankings of provinces and districts – to improve governance outcomes. SPAs assemble and publicize information on local government performance to facilitate monitoring and generate competition among officials.… read more about this publication »
Traditional antitrust policy was formulated to control pricing and output decisions that were not disciplined by competitive forces, either because of monopoly power or agreements in restraint of trade. Because there is no single criterion for evaluating political policy outcomes, antitrust… read more about this publication »
Distributed energy resource (DER) technologies such as rooftop solar change the structure of production and consumption in the electricity industry. These changes will be mediated by digital platforms in ways that will sharply decrease scale economy entry barriers in generation, making local… read more about this publication »
A longstanding theory indicates that the threat of a common enemy can mitigate conflict between members of rival groups. We tested this hypothesis in a pre-registered experiment where 1670 Republicans and Democrats in the United States were asked to complete an online social learning task with a… read more about this publication »