We present a simple model of populism as the rejection of “disloyal” leaders. We show that adding the assumption that people are worse off when they experience low income as a result of leader betrayal (than when it is the result of bad luck) to a simple voter choice model yields a preference for incompetent leaders. These deliver worse material outcomes in general, but they reduce the feelings...

Economic Conditions and Child Abuse Although a huge literature spanning several disciplines documents an association between poverty and child abuse, researchers have not found persuasive evidence that economic downturns increase abuse, despite their impacts on family income. In this paper, we address this seeming contradiction. Using county-level child abuse data spanning 1996 to 2009 from the...

Antitrust authorities have set up leniency programs for firms that denounce collusive agreements in which they have participated. These programs, by inducing reports on collusive agreements, allow to fine participants and can thereby eventually deter collusion. We analyze the impact of reduced fines and positive rewards on the behavior of firms. We propose the use of whistle-blowing mechanisms,...

Crimes against the historically marginalized Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) by the upper castes in India represent an extreme form of prejudice and discrimination. In this paper, we investigate the effect of changes in relative material standards of living between the SC/STs and upper castes as measured by the ratio of consumption expenditures of SC/STs to that of upper castes on...

There is conflicting evidence on the consequences of immigrant neighbourhood segregation for individual outcomes, with various studies finding positive, negative or insubstantial effects. In this paper, we document the evolution of immigrant segregation in England over the last 40 years. We show that standard measures of segregation point to gentle declines over time for all immigrant groups. H...

We propose and investigate a new channel through which the resource curse a stylized fact that countries rich in natural resources grow slower operates. Predatory governments are more likely to expropriate corporate profits in natural resource industries when the price of resources is higher. Corporations whose profits are more dependent on the price of resources can mitigate the risk of exprop...

The paper revisits the local determinants of crime using a spatial model distinguishing between resident and non-resident offenders. Employing data for German municipalities, the model is estimated by means of a spatial GMM approach. Focusing on resident offenders legal earnings opportunities and the expected gain from offenses are found to be important determinants of crime. Also the socio-eco...

This paper develops a model of the geographic distribution of crime in an urban area. Agents select their occupation, residence, consumption, and housing. The paper is the first to formally study how the location of crime, the residence of workers, and housing prices are affected by the spatial allocation of police protection. It examines two opposite strategies of police deployment: concentrat...

Dynamic update is a mechanism that allows software updates and patches to be applied to a running system without loss of service or down-time. Operating systems would benefit from dynamic update, but place unique demands on any implementation of such features. These demands stem from the event-driven nature of operating systems, from their restricted run-time execution environment, and from the...