Garrick Blalock

Hitting the Jackpot or Hitting the Skids: Entertainment, Poverty, and the Demand for State Lotteries

State-sponsored lotteries are a lucrative source of revenue. Despite their low payout rates, lotteries are extremely popular, particularly among low-income citizens. State officials laud the benefits of lottery proceeds and promote the fun and excitement of participation. This entertainment value is one explanation for lottery demand by the poor: individuals with lower incomes substitute lottery play for other entertainment. Alternatively, low-income consumers may view lotteries as a convenient and otherwise rare opportunity for radically improving their standard of living. Bad times may cause desperation, and the desperate may turn to lotteries in an effort to escape hardship. This study tests these competing explanations. We examine lottery sales data from 39 states over 10 years and find a strong and positive relationship between sales and poverty rates. In contrast, we find no relationship between movie ticket sales, another inexpensive form of entertainment, and poverty rates.

Driving fatalities after 9/11: a hidden cost of terrorism

We show that the publics response to terrorist threats can have unintended consequences that rival the attacks themselves in severity. Driving fatalities increased significantly after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, events that prompted many travellers to substitute road transportation for safer air transportation. After controlling for time trends, weather, road conditions and other factors, we find that travellers’ response to 9/11 resulted in 327 driving deaths per month in late 2001. Moreover, while the effect of 9/11 weakened over time, as many as 2300 driving deaths may be attributable to the attacks.

Gender Bias in Power Relationships: Evidence from Police Traffic Stops

We test for the existence of gender bias in power relationships. Specifically, we examine whether police officers are less likely to issue traffic tickets to men or to women during traffic stops. Whereas the conventional wisdom, which we document with surveys, is that women are less likely to receive tickets, our analysis shows otherwise. Examination of a pooled sample of traffic stops from five locations reveals no gender bias, but does show significant regional variation in the likelihood of citations. Analysis by location shows that women are more likely to receive citations in three of the five locations. Men are more likely to receive citations in the other two locations. To our knowledge, this study is the first to test for gender bias in traffic stops, and clearly refutes the conventional wisdom that police are more lenient towards women.

Does Peer Use Influence Adoption of Efficient Cookstoves? Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial in Uganda

The authors examined the effect of peer usage on consumer demand for efficient cookstoves with a randomized controlled trial in rural Uganda. The authors tested whether the neighbors of buyers who ordered and received a stove are more likely to purchase an efficient cookstove than the neighbors of buyers who ordered but have not yet received a stove. The authors found that neighbors of buyers who have experience with the stove are not detectably more likely to purchase a stove than neighbors of buyers who have not yet received their stove. The authors found evidence of peer effects in opinions about efficient cookstoves. Knowing that a prominent member of the community has the efficient stove predicts 17–22 percentage points higher odds of strongly favoring the stove. However, this more favorable opinion seemingly has no effect on purchase decisions.

How to estimate DSP processor performance

The market for products based on digital signal processing (DSP) technology-wireless communication devices and PC multimedia peripherals, for example-is growing rapidly. Semiconductor manufacturers have responded to this demand with a bewildering array of DSP processors. Selecting the best one for a given application presents a difficult and time-consuming challenge for DSP system designers. Simple, familiar performance measures like MIPS and MOPS are misleading and neglect factors like memory usage, power consumption and application execution time. Complex alternatives-such as application benchmarks-suffer from limitations that virtually preclude fair comparisons. Fortunately, a compromise methodology that combines algorithm kernel benchmarking with application profiling yields good estimates of processor performance weighted to the target application.

The Impact of 9/11 on Road Fatalities: The Other Lives Lost to Terrorism

We find that driving fatalities increased significantly following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, an event which prompted many travelers to substitute less-safe surface transportation for safer air transportation. After controlling for time trends, weather, road conditions, and other factors, we attribute an increase of 242 driving fatalities per month to additional road travel undertaken in response to 9/11. In total, our results suggest that at least 1,200 additional driving deaths are attributable to the effect of 9/11. We also provide evidence that is consistent with the 9/11 effect on road fatalities weakening over time as drivers return to flying. Our results show that the public response to terrorist threats can create unintended consequences that rival the attacks themselves in severity.

LEARNING FROM EXPORTING: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA.

We examine firm innovation from public knowledge stocks by measuring the adoption of technology brought with foreign direct investment (FDI). We add to the literature by asking not only if local fi...

Sensor data to measure Hawthorne effects in cookstove evaluation

This data in brief article includes estimated time cooking based on temperature sensor data taken every 30 min from three stone fires and introduced fuel-efficient Envirofit stoves in approximately 168 households in rural Uganda. These households were part of an impact evaluation study spanning about six months to understand the effects of fuel-efficient cookstoves on fuel use and pollution. Daily particulate matter (pollution) and fuelwood use data are also included. This data in brief file only includes the weeks prior to, during, and after an in-person measurement team visited each home. The data is used to analyze whether households change cooking patterns when in-person measurement teams are present versus when only the temperature sensor is in the home.

Special Issue on the Economics of Local Food Markets

In October 2010, Walmart announced that it would be doubling its offerings of locally grown produce within its extensive network of retail stores. Other more traditional grocery chains, such as Safeway, Kroger, and Wegmans, have followed suit, touting their own local offerings. In each case, these retailers claim that local food sources may reduce costs, increase the quality and freshness of produce, and reduce the carbon emissions due to transportation. However, local foods (and produce in particular) may be available only within a narrow season of the year. These changes come about ostensibly in response to pressure from consumer groups concerned with issues of environmental sustainability. It is unclear how this reshaping of the food supply chain will impact farmers, consumers, and retailers. The first four articles within this issue were originally presented as part of the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association’s workshop on the Economics of Local Food Markets, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in June 2010. The goal of this workshop was to highlight current research and bring together researchers, extension educators, private sector participants, and policymakers to exchange ideas and develop a common set of priority research and education needs for local food systems. The workshop included both prominent invited speakers (the paper of invited speaker Carolyn Dimitri appeared in the October 2010 issue) and several contributed papers. These four papers represent a cross section of the views presented. Kathryn Onken, John Bernard, and John Pesek, Jr., use experimental methods to examine the impact of state programs to market organic, natural, and locally grown foods on consumer valuation. Each of the five states included in their analysis have ongoing promotional programs (Jersey Fresh, PA Preferred, Grown Fresh with Care in Delaware, Virginia’s Finest, Maryland’s Best). The authors find substantial consumer preference for local foods, though no detectable preference for organic over other natural foods. The strength of preference for local foods was much higher among farmers market patrons than those of retail grocery stores. William Nganje, Renee Hughner, and Nicholas Lee use survey methods to address consumer willingness to pay for locally grown or state-branded produce, focusing on issues of food safety and traceability. They find a substantial premium for locally grown foods that is associated with consumer preference for safety. Alternatively, traceability does not appear to be as important to the consumer. Ferdinand Wirth, John Stanton, and James Wiley conduct a conjoint analysis experiment to quantify the relative importance of observable quality attributes versus credence attributes such as organic or locally grown foods. Their analysis shows that observed quality attributes appear to be much more important than credence attributes in the context of consumer preferences. Thus, it may be that better-looking produce will trump locally grown or other credence attributes in a competitive consumer market. Finally, Hiroki Uematsu and Ashok Mishra examine the impact of direct marketing of farm products to consumers on farm business income. Using a large national survey and quantile regres_________________________________________