Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-04-05DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70059
Mariano Kulish, James Morley, Nadine Yamout, Francesco Zanetti
{"title":"Dutch disease, unemployment and structural change","authors":"Mariano Kulish, James Morley, Nadine Yamout, Francesco Zanetti","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70059","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We find that Dutch disease effects on unemployment are small even in a commodity-rich economy like Australia. Using an estimated open-economy model with frictional unemployment, we quantify how business-cycle shocks and structural changes shape aggregate unemployment. A permanent rise in commodity prices in the 2000s appreciated the real exchange rate and temporarily increased unemployment, but its effect was offset by a gradual, secular decline in the disutility of work in the non-tradable sector, a key driver of long-run structural change. Shifting preferences toward non-tradables, together with non-commodity shocks, account for most of the observed unemployment dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"976-1004"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecin.70059","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389162","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-04-07DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70060
Francisco Alpízar, Peter Martinsson, Marcella Veronesi
{"title":"Suggested donation or social information? Evidence from a field experiment","authors":"Francisco Alpízar, Peter Martinsson, Marcella Veronesi","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70060","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Which fundraising strategy is more effective and how donation behavior changes with different monetary amounts are still open questions. This study compares the effectiveness of two fundraising strategies—suggested donation and social information—and examines how different monetary amounts affect donation behavior. We implemented a field experiment on voluntary donations among visitors to a national park. Both fundraising strategies affect donation behavior. However, the donation pattern differs significantly depending on the monetary amounts shown. Our findings provide important insights for designing fundraising campaigns and show how suggested donation and social information affect economic behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"1097-1115"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389261","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-04-02DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70055
John Charles Bradbury
{"title":"The public cost of Minor League Baseball stadium subsidies","authors":"John Charles Bradbury","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70055","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Public financing of major league sports venues has been widely studied, but government support for minor league facilities has not been systematically documented. This study introduces a new database of Minor League Baseball stadium funding to measure the prevalence and magnitude of subsidies. State and local governments have spent $7 billion constructing and renovating 134 minor league ballparks for Major League Baseball (MLB) affiliates, raising important policy implications for moderately sized municipalities. Using MLB's reorganization of its minor leagues as a natural experiment, the analysis finds no income differences between cities that lost or retained teams, undermining the economic rationale for taxpayer subsidization.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"1079-1096"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389092","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-03-11DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70049
Yong Chao, Babu Nahata
{"title":"Equivalence between tying and vertical integration with Pareto-improving foreclosure","authors":"Yong Chao, Babu Nahata","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70049","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper explores the relationships among tying, partial integration (PI), and full integration (FI) when an input monopolist can require downstream buyers to purchase a competitively supplied input from it (tying) or integrate forward in the downstream market. Both tying and integration foreclose the independent supply of the other input, yet we show that tying and PI are <i>always</i> equivalent in equilibrium, even under general production technologies—extending Blair and Kaserman, who focus on FI and linearly homogeneous production. In contrast, tying and FI are <i>not</i> always equivalent; we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for their equivalence and show that, when nonequivalent, tying can generate higher total welfare than FI. We also identify conditions under which either practice can be <i>Pareto improving</i> relative to the non-tying/non-integration benchmark. These findings contribute to the economic foundation for evaluating tying and integration in antitrust policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"844-867"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389140","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-02-18DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70052
Keith Ihlanfeldt, Luke P. Rodgers, Cynthia Fan Yang
{"title":"Adding race and ethnicity to microeconomic databases: An assessment of alternative options","authors":"Keith Ihlanfeldt, Luke P. Rodgers, Cynthia Fan Yang","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70052","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Estimating differences between racial/ethnic groups often requires merging demographic variables from one dataset to variables of interest in another. A common method merges Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to property databases. One alternative is to acquire this information from voter registration files; another is to predict race with a name-based algorithm. Compared to Census data, which method is more representative varies by location and group. We explore the practical implications of each method by using the matched samples in two empirical applications. Researchers can arrive at different conclusions about racial/ethnic disparities depending on the method selected.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"819-829"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389208","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-04-18DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70062
Qi Zhang, Bin Zhao
{"title":"Free market initiatives: Benefits and distortions from political power","authors":"Qi Zhang, Bin Zhao","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70062","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the effects of China's Free Trade Zone (FTZ) initiative on firm performance and how these effects vary by firms' political power. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design in two settings, we find that FTZ implementation increases return on assets, total factor productivity, and exports. These gains are larger for state-owned and politically connected firms, especially in productivity. Mechanism analyses suggest that politically advantaged firms benefit more from lower effective tax rates and reduced financial expenses. The findings show that political power distorts the gains from market liberalization and limits equal access to reform opportunities.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"931-954"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389212","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-05-20DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70066
Andres Cuadros-Meñaca, Di Fang, Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr, Michael R. Thomsen
{"title":"Universal free meals and school suspensions","authors":"Andres Cuadros-Meñaca, Di Fang, Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr, Michael R. Thomsen","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70066","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examine whether providing free school meals to all students causes changes in out-of-school suspensions for schools adopting those policies in the United States. Using updated data and modern difference-in-differences methods that account for staggered adoption, we show suspensions fall by approximately 10% in elementary schools and 6% in middle and high schools, with larger effects in schools that previously served fewer students eligible for free and reduced-price meals in preadoption periods. These findings contrast with earlier null results, primarily due to better methods that account for staggered program adoption as opposed to the updated dataset.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"773-797"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecin.70066","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389248","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-04-07DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70056
Nathan Kettlewell, Peter Siminski
{"title":"Placebo zones in discontinuity-based designs: Estimation, inference, and implementation","authors":"Nathan Kettlewell, Peter Siminski","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70056","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We propose a new model-selection algorithm for regression discontinuity design and related estimators. The performance of candidate models is assessed within a “placebo zone” of the running variable. Candidate models can differ by bandwidth and other choice parameters. We outline (restrictive) sufficient conditions under which the approach is asymptotically optimal, and then show the approach also performs favorably under more general conditions in Monte Carlo simulations, including simulations calibrated to well-known real-world applications. We also propose a new randomization inference procedure which draws on the placebo estimates. Our Stata commands implement the procedure and compare its performance to other approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"798-818"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecin.70056","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389258","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-04-07DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70058
Xin Feng, Jingfeng Lu
{"title":"Selling to a continuum of buyers with private values and entry costs","authors":"Xin Feng, Jingfeng Lu","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70058","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper studies the revenue-maximizing selling mechanism with a continuum of buyers who have two-dimensional private information: valuation and entry cost. Using optimal control methods, we solve this two-dimensional screening problem with endogenous entry and derive sufficient conditions under which the optimal mechanism is a posted price. These conditions reduce the original problem to a one-dimensional one in which a buyer's type is net valuation, and the optimal posted price matches that of the transformed environment. Finally, under mild conditions, revenue maximization implies underselling relative to the efficient allocation.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"895-915"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389259","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}
Economic InquiryPub Date : 2026-07-05Epub Date: 2026-03-12DOI: 10.1111/ecin.70046
Daniel H. Cooper, Barry Z. Cynamon, Steven M. Fazzari
{"title":"Sustainable consumption and the economic well-being of American households","authors":"Daniel H. Cooper, Barry Z. Cynamon, Steven M. Fazzari","doi":"10.1111/ecin.70046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.70046","url":null,"abstract":"<p>“Sustainable consumption” defines a comprehensive measure of household economic well-being that integrates income, assets, debt, transfers, and rates of return to estimate a feasible lifetime consumption path. We find that sustainable consumption anchors actual spending, with deviations in one period adjusting back toward the sustainable level in subsequent periods. After the Great Recession, sustainable consumption fell more than actual consumption, in part due to lower real asset returns. Decomposing sustainable consumption into its components reveals primary support from taxable income, but its share has declined while Social Security's has grown. Substantial differences are also evident across race-ethnicity and educational levels.</p>","PeriodicalId":51380,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inquiry","volume":"64 3","pages":"955-975"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389145","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}