Most state (and local) governments in the U.S. operate under formal fiscal rules which limit their ability to run budget deficits and resort to debt financing. A priori, one would expect to find evidence in favor of an intertemporally balanced budget, or fiscal sustainability, for these states, especially those characterized by a relatively high degree of fiscal stringency. We test this hypothe...

We show that the effect of tax advantages of municipal bonds on the market microstructure of municipal bond auctions is a crucial determinant of state and local governments’ borrowing costs. Reduced-form estimates show that increasing the tax advantage by 3-pp. lowers mean borrowing costs by 9-10%, consistent with a greater-than-unity passthrough elasticity. Non-parametric evidence shows that s...

This paper explores the impact of professional sports teams and stadiums on the wages of individuals employed in several narrowly defined occupational groups in cities in the United States. The occupational groups examined are among those that proponents of public funding of professional sports claim will benefit economically from these stadiums. Our analysis uses data from the March Supplement...

Although ribosomes are very stable under most conditions, ribosomal degradation does occur in diverse groups of organisms in response to specific stresses or environmental conditions. While non-functional ribosome decay (NRD) in yeast is well characterized, very little is known of the mechanisms that initiate ribosomal degradation in bacteria. Here we test ribosome degradation in growing Escher...

Heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitors exhibit activity against human cancers. We evaluated a series of new, oral bioavailable, chemically diverse Hsp90 inhibitors (PU-H71, AUY922, BIIB021, NVP-BEP800) against Kaposi sarcoma (KS). All Hsp90 inhibitors exhibited nanomolar EC(50) in culture and AUY922 reduced tumor burden in a xenograft model of KS. KS is associated with KS-associated herpesvir...

Flagella are cell surface appendages involved in a number of bacterial behaviors, such as motility, biofilm formation, and chemotaxis. Despite these important functions, flagella can pose a liability to a bacterium when serving as potent immunogens resulting in the stimulation of the innate and adaptive immune systems. Previous work showing appendage overexpression, referred to as attenuating g...