A growing literature documents that air pollution adversely impacts health, productivity, and cognition. This paper provides the first evidence of a causal link between aggressive behavior, as documented by violent crime. Using geolocation crimes in Chicago from 2001–2012, we compare crime upwind downwind major highways on days when wind blows orthogonally to road. Consistent with research link...

Certain markets are illicit because part of the supply is coerced, but little known about optimal regulation such markets. We model a prostitution market with voluntary and coerced prostitutes ask what can restore benchmark outcome that would arise under laissez-faire absent coercion. Whereas current policies—decriminalization, criminalization buy or sell sides, licensing—are ineffective agains...

This paper investigates multi-item moral hazard with auditing contests. Although the presented model is widely applicable, we choose tax evasion as an exemplary application. We introduce a tax-evasion model where tax authority and taxpayer invest in detection and concealment. The taxpayers have multiple potential income sources and are heterogeneous with respect to their evasion scruples. The t...

How does information technology (IT) affect the organization of police work? How does it in turn affect police crime-fighting effectiveness? To answer these questions, we construct a new panel data set of police departments covering 1987-2003. We find that while IT adoption had substantial effects on a wide range of police organizational practices, it had, by itself, a negligible impact on crim...

Trade subject to predation generates externalities within and between markets. Efficient tax, infrastructure and enforcement policies internalize the net externality — more trade ⇒ fewer predators but drawn to trade at rising cost. The balance is positive (negative) as enforcement is weak (strong). Dual economies pair weak Periphery and strong Core enforcement markets. Efficient taxation and in...

Two bookmakers compete in Bertrand fashion while setting odds on the outcomes of a sporting contest where an influential punter (or betting syndicate) may bribe some player(s) to fix the contest. Zero profit and bribe prevention may not always hold together. When the influential punter is quite powerful, the bookies may coordinate on prices and earn positive profits for fear of letting the ‘lem...

The standard expected utility (EUT) model of tax evasion predicts that evasion is decreasing in the marginal tax rate (the Yitzhaki puzzle). Recent literature shows cases in which incorporating prospect theory (PT) does and does not overturn the Puzzle. In a general environment that nests both PT and EUT preferences, we provide a detailed study of how the elements of PT affect the Puzzle. PT do...

This paper studies the effect of social closure on crime and tax evasion rates using disaggregated data for Italian municipalities. It measures the degree of social openness of a community by the diversity of its surname distribution, which reflects the history of migration and inbreeding. It shows that, all else equal, communities with a history of social closure have lower crime rates and hig...

The US criminal justice system is exceptionally punitive. We test whether racial heterogeneity one cause, exploiting cross-jurisdiction variation in punishment severity four Southern states. estimate the causal effect of jurisdiction on arrest outcomes using a fixed effects model that incorporates extensive charge and defendant controls. validate our estimates defendants charged multiple jurisd...

The transfer of certain electrolytes (Na22, C136, K42 and P3204) from the isolated urinary bladder to the plasma compartment was studied in the dog. The rate of transfer was shown to be a function of the PH of the bladder contents over a range of 5 through 8. It was also shown that the rate of transfer was decreased by addition of common ion. Na22 and C136 showed greater rates of transfer than ...