{"title":"Alaska's ban on sentence bargaining","authors":"Bryan C. McCannon","doi":"10.1111/coep.12626","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12626","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Plea bargaining dominates the U.S. criminal justice system and has garnered calls to reduce its prevalence. In 2013 Alaska's Attorney General acted banning a practice known as sentencing bargaining where the prosecutor negotiates with the defense over the length of the incarceration. I provide the first causal identification of this policy's impact on the plea bargaining rate. I show that the policy, by leaving open the charging discretion (in effect allowing charge bargaining), was ineffective at changing plea bargaining's prevalence across the state. Policymakers should look elsewhere for tools if they want to mitigate its rate.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 1","pages":"110-119"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135352456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Democracy Vouchers help democracy?","authors":"Sarah Papich","doi":"10.1111/coep.12625","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12625","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Seattle's Democracy Vouchers program provides a unique form of public financing for political campaigns in which voters decide how to allocate public funding across candidates. This paper is the first to study the effects of public financing for political campaigns on political participation. I estimate that the Democracy Vouchers program increases voter turnout by 4.9 percentage points, suggesting that public financing programs can increase political participation. I also find that campaigns become more reliant on small contributions. For city council candidates, dollars from small contributions under $100 increase by 156% while dollars from large contributions over $250 decrease by 93%.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 1","pages":"4-24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/coep.12625","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135592571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do tax credits benefit charities? Evidence from two states","authors":"Anubhav Gupta, Thomas Luke Spreen","doi":"10.1111/coep.12622","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12622","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper considers the effect of state charitable giving tax credits on the contribution revenues of eligible charities. Using event studies paired with Form 990 data, we detect no significant change in contributions to qualified nonprofits after the elimination of a $100 per taxpayer credit by Michigan. By contrast, we find a significant increase in contributions to qualified charities following the introduction of a $10,000 per taxpayer credit by North Dakota that persists for several years. The results suggest that placing a large cap on charitable giving tax credits induces stronger donor responses.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 1","pages":"94-109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/coep.12622","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42666657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aparna Soni, Lindsey Bullinger, Christina Andrews, Amanda Abraham, Kosali Simon
{"title":"The impact of state Medicaid eligibility and benefits policy on neonatal abstinence syndrome hospitalizations","authors":"Aparna Soni, Lindsey Bullinger, Christina Andrews, Amanda Abraham, Kosali Simon","doi":"10.1111/coep.12623","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12623","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) resulting from opioid misuse are rising. However, policies to treat opioid misuse during pregnancy are unclear. We apply a difference-in-differences design to national pediatric discharge records to examine the effects of state Medicaid policies on NAS. Among states in which Medicaid covered two clinically-recommended medications for treating opioid misuse (buprenorphine, methadone), the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion reduced Medicaid-covered NAS hospitalizations. Medicaid expansion did not affect NAS hospitalizations in other expansion states. These findings imply a nuanced relationship between Medicaid policy and NAS that should be considered in addressing opioid misuse among pregnant women.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 1","pages":"25-40"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43246604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leveling the playing field: The distributional impact of maximum- and minimum-level contracts on player compensation","authors":"Scott M. Kaplan","doi":"10.1111/coep.12621","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12621","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How does the presence of maximum- and minimum-level contract restrictions impact (i) superstar compensation and (ii) the distribution of compensation across an industry? Using ticket price and observed player talent data from the National Basketball Association (NBA), I estimate expected salaries for each player as well as their value to the NBA as a whole. I find the ratio of actual to expected salary is 2.8%–56.9% for the most talented players, resulting in subsidization to less talented players. The findings also suggest the most talented players generate significantly more value to the NBA than their actual and expected salaries.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 2","pages":"375-391"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42058468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Surgeons' response to reimbursement changes for alternative procedures: Evidence from spine fusion in the U.S.","authors":"Nicholas Benson, Jose Joaquin Lopez","doi":"10.1111/coep.12620","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12620","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Spinal fusion is the highest operating room expense in the U.S. and the performed procedure depends largely on surgeon preference. We use national claims data for 2010–2014 to study changes in the relative frequency of substitutable spinal fusion procedures, following a one-time cut in Medicare reimbursement fees that switched the ranking of the two procedures with the highest surgical fees. Relative to lower-fee alternatives with better clinical outcomes, patients were 6.3% more likely to receive the highest-fee procedure after the policy change. We find no evidence of cost savings following the reimbursement change.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 1","pages":"41-55"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47119532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Security Disability Insurance and intergenerational economic mobility","authors":"Katie Jajtner, Matt Messel, Jason Fletcher","doi":"10.1111/coep.12617","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12617","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Economic opportunity in the United States is shaped by parental health and disability. We hypothesize that Disability Insurance (DI) may mitigate the observed pattern. Using linked survey and administrative data, we find children of work-limited parents have 4.1 percentiles less upward economic mobility and 4.3 percentiles more downward mobility relative to children of non-limited parents. Despite poorer health, children of parents initially <i>awarded</i> DI experience a negligible mobility gap relative to peers whose parents never apply to DI and 3.6 percentiles more upward mobility than peers of parents who are initially denied benefits—suggesting DI may moderate economic mobility.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"41 4","pages":"575-593"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/coep.12617","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44872433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The macroeconomic impact of automation: Applications to elderly care","authors":"Chia-Hui Lu","doi":"10.1111/coep.12618","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12618","url":null,"abstract":"<p>When automation technology can both help a firm's production and be widely used in the provision of long-term care for the elderly, developments in automation can potentially help alleviate the situation of a declining birthrate in an aging society and increase production and household welfare. In addition, this paper obtains results consistent with the real-world situation in which population aging and a declining birthrate arise simultaneously. Considering the case where automation technology is developed by firms does not change the main findings. Therefore, the government should encourage people to engage in the development of automation.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"41 4","pages":"674-695"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49089278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Macroprudential policy leakage: Evidence from shadow banking activities of Chinese enterprises","authors":"Guiting Lin, Alice Y. Ouyang","doi":"10.1111/coep.12619","DOIUrl":"10.1111/coep.12619","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using entrusted loan data of Chinese listed enterprises, we study whether the implementation of macroprudential policy leads to enterprise policy arbitrage. Our findings reveal that tightening macroprudential policies significantly contribute to the promotion of shadow banking activities among Chinese enterprises, confirming the existence of policy leakage. When the overall credit is tight, non-affiliated loans and loans to privately-owned enterprises increase significantly. Tightening policies also have a more substantial effect on the borrowing cost of non-affiliated and privately-owned enterprise borrowers. To enhance the effectiveness of macroprudential policy, our results suggest the necessity of providing appropriate credit supports for small and medium enterprises.</p>","PeriodicalId":47364,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Economic Policy","volume":"42 1","pages":"160-182"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45888877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}