Many governments have engaged in policy experimentation in various forms to resolve
uncertainty and facilitate learning. However, little is understood about the characteristics of …

Generally, the debate over environmental federalism strongly focuses on anecdotal
evidence and intuition. Empirical facts have not been the focus of arguments concerning the …

This article explains why decentralization can undermine accountability and answers three
questions: what determines if power should be centralized or decentralized when regions …

When political agents are subject to centralized performance evaluation, their efforts and
performances tend to be correlated with one another in the “neighborhood”. Using quarterly …

Economists have studied the impact of numerous state laws, from welfare rules to voting ID
requirements. Yet for all this policy evaluation, what do we know about policy diffusion—how …

We study the effects of decentralized wealth taxation on mobility and the effectiveness of tax
coordination at mitigating tax competition. We exploit the reintroduction of the Spanish …

The book offers a comparative analysis of center-region relations in Russia and in China.
The authors focus in particular on fiscal ties and incentives, bureaucratic and local …

In many public policy areas, randomised policy experiments can greatly contribute to our
knowledge of the effects of policies and can thus help to improve public policy. However …

How do administrative burdens influence enrollment in different welfare programs? Who is
screened out at a given stage? This paper studies the impacts of increased administrative …

I argue the Supreme Court learns to craft legal rules by relying on the Courts of Appeals as
laboratories of law, observing their decisions and reviewing those that best inform legal …