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Abstract:
This paper provides the first empirical test of the Portia Hypothesis: females with masculine monikers are more successful in legal careers. Utilizing South Carolina microdata, we look for correlation between an individual's advancement to a judgeship and his/her name's masculinity, which we construct from the joint empirical distribution of names and gender in the state's entire population of registered voters. We find robust evidence that nominally masculine females are favored over other females. Hence, our results support the Portia Hypothesis.

Abstract:
We examine the correlation between federal government activity and the performance of the D.C. area's National Football League team, the Washington Redskins. We find a significantly positive, non-spurious, and robust correlation between the Redskins' winning percentage and the amount of federal government bureaucratic activity as measured by the number of pages in the Federal Register. Because the Redskins' performance is prototypically exogenous, we give this surprising result a causal interpretation. Drawing upon public choice theory and behavioral economics, we provide a plausible explanation for the causal mechanism: bureaucrats must make "logrolling" deals in order to expand their regulatory power, and a winning football team acts as a commonly shared source of joyous optimism to lubricate such negotiations. We do not find the same correlation when examining Congressional activity, which we attribute to legislator loyalty to their home state's team(s).

regulation, regulations, NFL, regulators and sports, regulations and sports, stadium finance, public choice and sports

Abstract:
Information about collectively-created problems, such as air pollution, may elicit voluntary changes to consumer behavior that at least partially offset the cause of the problem. We show that increases in information about climate change are associated with statistically and economically significant decreases in expenditure on gasoline, controlling for gasoline prices and income. We simultaneously provide updated estimates of the short run price and income elasticities of demand for gasoline in the US, utilizing recent weekly gasoline consumption and price data and spatially-delineated supply side disruptions due to hurricanes as an instrument for price.

climate change, global warming, gasoline demand, voluntary protection of the commons, environmentalism, environmental awareness

Abstract:
Groups of countries in a region sometimes impose environmental regulations on themselves, particularly inside the European Union. Regional environmental regulations might affect trade flows to and from the regulated countries differently than unilaterally generated regulations for two reasons. The first we term the uneven competitiveness effect: a given increase in production costs across all countries is a higher percentage increase in production costs for countries that produce low-cost goods than for those that produce high-cost goods. The second reason we term the uneven burden of compliance: because high income countries are more likely than low income countries to have relatively stringent environmental regulations in place prior to the creation of regional environmental regulations, the cost of compliance with a given regional environmental regulation might be lower for high income countries than for low income countries.

Using the gravity equation, we test the effect on bilateral trade flows of increases in environmental regulation stringency ratings, taken from survey data, with a panel of 56 countries, controlling for European Union membership and income levels. We find significant differences in the effects on EU members’ exports and non-EU members’ exports’ as well as across income levels of countries. An increase in environmental regulation stringency leads to a dramatic decrease in exports from low income, EU-members; conversely, a similar change in environmental regulation stringency leads to an increase in exports from high income, EU-member countries. The results are consistent with the hypothesized uneven competitiveness effect and the uneven burden of compliance.

international trade, gravity equation, regional regulations, environmental regulations, European Union regulations, environment and trade

Abstract:
This paper provides the first empirical test of the Portia Hypothesis: Females with masculine monikers are more successful in legal careers. Utilizing South Carolina microdata, we look for correlation between an individual's advancement to a judgeship and his/her name's masculinity, which we construct from the joint empirical distribution of names and gender in the state's entire population of registered voters. We find robust evidence that nominally masculine females are favored over other females. Hence, our results support the Portia Hypothesis.