Research Interests

My research area is law and economics.
I am interested in the formation and consequences of normative commitments.
An overview of my work can be found here and a non-technical summary here.

 

Consequences of Normative Commitments

Using Random Assignment of Judges to Estimate the Causal Effects of Law

1. Sparse Models and Methods for Optimal Instruments with an Application to Eminent Domain
   with A. Belloni, V. Chernozhukov, and C. Hansen
   Revised and resubmitted, Econometrica
   September 2011
   Stata code for implementing LASSO

2. Insiders and Outsiders: Does Forbidding Sexual Harassment Exacerbate Gender Inequality?
   with J. Sethi
   November 2011
   

3. Growth Under the Shadow of Expropriation? The Economic Impacts of Eminent Domain
   with S. Yeh
   May 2012
   

4. Does Obscenity Law Corrode Moral Values and Does It Matter? Evidence from 1958-2008
   with S. Yeh
   May 2012
   

5. Do Policies Affect Preferences? Evidence from Random Variation in Abortion Jurisprudence
   with V. Levonyan and S. Yeh
   March 2012  
   

6. Does Appellate Precedent Matter? Stock Price Responses to Appellate Court Decisions of FCC Actions
   with A. Araiza and S. Yeh
   in Empirical Studies of Judicial Systems, forthcoming.
   

7. Distinguishing Between Custom and Law: Empirical Examples of Endogeneity from Property and First Amendment Precedents
   with S. Yeh
   prepared for Duke Law Journal symposium.
   

Legitimacy

1. The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty? Evidence from British Commutations During World War I
   January 2012

2. Priming Ideology? Electoral Cycles Without Electoral Incentives Among U.S. Judges
   with C. Berdejo
   December 2011, submitted.
   

3. The Wages of Pay Cuts: Evidence From a Field Experiment
   with J. Horton
   April 2009
   

4. Gender Violence and the Price of Virginity: Theory and Evidence of Incomplete Marriage Contracts
   November 2005, currently under revision.

5. Designing Incentives for Inexpert Human Raters
   with J. Horton and A. Shaw
   Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2011, Best Paper Award Honorable Mention.
   

6. An Empirical Study Comparing the Controlled Random Search Procedure and the General Simulated Annealing Method for Function Optimization
   Proceedings of the Fourth Annual District of Columbia Computer Conference, 1995.
   

 

Formation of Normative Commitments

How Market Forces Interact with Normative Commitments

1. Club Goods and Group Identity: Evidence from Islamic Resurgence During the Indonesian Financial Crisis, earlier version with model
   Journal of Political Economy, 118(2), 300-354, 2010. 
   

2. Islamic Resurgence and Social Violence During the Indonesian Financial Crisis
   in Institutions and Norms in Economic Development, MIT Press, ed. M. Gradstein and K. Konrad, 179-200, 2007.
   

3. Does Economic Distress Stimulate Religious Fundamentalism?
   July 2005, currently under revision.

4. Religion, Welfare Politics, and Church-State Separation
   with J. Lind
   Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 42(1), 42-52, 2007.

5. The Political Economy of Beliefs: Why Fiscal and Social Conservatives (Liberals) Come Hand-in-Hand
   with J. Lind
   November 2005, currently under revision.

6. Markets, Morality, and Economic Growth
   October 2011
   

7. A Market for Justice
   April 2012

8. A Market for Justice: A First Empirical Look at Third Party Litigation Funding
   with D. Abrams
   Journal of Business Law, forthcoming.
   

9. Hot and Cold Social Preferences
   July 2009
   

10. Does Disclosure Matter? Comment
    Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 168(1), 120-123, 2012.
    

Demography of Ideas

1. Income Distribution Dynamics with Endogenous Fertility
   with M. Kremer
   American Economic Review, 89(2), 155-160, 1999.
   

2. Income Distribution Dynamics with Endogenous Fertility
   with M. Kremer
   Journal of Economic Growth, 7(3), 227-258, 2002.
   

3. Trading Off Reproductive Technology and Adoption: Do IVF Subsidies Decrease Adoption Rates and Should It Matter?
   with G. Cohen
   Minnesota Law Review, 95(2), 2010, selected for Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum. 
   

4. Trading Off Reproductive Technology and Adoption: A Response to Appleton and Pollak
   with G. Cohen
   Minnesota Law Review, 95(6), 2011.
   

5. Sonia Sotomayor and the Construction of Merit
   with G. Charles and M. Gulati
   Emory Law Journal, forthcoming.
   

6. Can Countries Reverse Fertility Decline? Evidence from France's Marriage and Baby Bonuses, 1929-1981
   International Tax and Public Finance, 118(3), 252-271, 2011.
   

7. How Does Science Progress? A Statistical Approach to Postmodern Theories of Knowledge
   August 2008, currently under revision.