Government spending should be regarded as a social and political phenomenon, not merely as a technical choice. We argue that there is an implicit contract between the organized elites and politicians which often leads to a pro-elite allocation of public resources. A natural and simple taxonomy...

Cost-benefit analyses of health and safety regulations require estimates of the benefits of reducing pollution, and hence the risks of pollution-caused illnesses. Lost work income constitutes an important component of monetized benefits. This paper examines the impact of married men and...

This paper reports results from a field experiment in Uganda. The proportion of children five years and younger who slept under a mosquito net was 20 percent higher when nets were distributed for free compared to when an equivalent cash transfer could be used to purchase nets. This effect is...