Basic research in implicit social cognition demonstrates that thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness or conscious control can influence perception, judgment, and action. Implicit measures reveal that people possess implicit attitudes and stereotypes about social groups that are often distinct from their explicitly endorsed beliefs and values. The evidence that behavior can be infl...

The dynamic public finance literature underwent significant changes over the past decade. This research agenda has now reached a stage at which it is able to analyze the design of social insurance programs and optimal taxation in rich environments that can be closely matched to microeconomic data. We provide an overview of the recent advances in this literature, discuss the key trade-offs, and ...

Recently, the news media has reported the deaths of many young, unarmed African-American males who have been killed by police officers who have not been held criminally-responsible for their actions. These events have ignited social tensions, served as a topic of debate for presidential candidates, as well as sparked the Black Lives Matters Movement. Furthermore, when there has been public outc...

The solutions to emerging disease problems involve politics and policy issues, as well as solid science. The National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM), whose mission is to “improve the health of people of the nation and the world,” draws upon the expertise of elected members as well as others in the United States and other nations to make policy recommendations. Groups convene t...

John and Paul were friends who grew up in the same run-down housing project in a large in dustrial city. Their neighborhood was plagued by drugs and violence. By the time the boys were 10 years old and each had experienced several years of family conflict, their respective parents divorced. Each was subsequently raised, along with an older sibling and two younger siblings, by a single mother. T...

Cloud computing has emerged as perhaps the hottest development in information technology. Despite all of the attention that it has garnered, existing analyses focus almost exclusively on the issues that surround data privacy without exploring cloud computing’s architectural and policy implications. This article offers an initial exploratory analysis in that direction. It begins by introducing k...

This paper explores how bequests affect redistributive fiscal policies. The main premise underlying our approach is that bequests act as a signal of parental affection. It is shown that private transfers in the form of bequests may not offset public transfers to a significant extent, even though such private transfers are altruistically motivated and are strictly positive for all but a negligib...

This title raises a number of important issues which this paper does not attempt to explore. Any adequate response would require some analysis of what is meant by a 'health policy'. Some attempt would need to be made to evaluate the benefits of health, the costs to society of disease and the resource requirements of policies intended to promote health. Such a 'health policy' would need to relat...

Despite increasing evidence of the seriousness of maternal depression, the number of individuals affected, and the impact of maternal depression on infant growth and development, maternal mental health has not become a component of the primary health care system in many parts of the world. The impact appears to be greatest in South Asia, possibly among low-income families. Some interventions, s...