Matthew J. Baker

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• PhD
• Professor at City University of New York - Hunter College

The deterrence function of criminal punishment relies on the credibility of enforcers to carry out threatened sanctions. That credibility may be suspect when enforcers face budgetary constraints, especially if the realized crime rate is high. This leads to the potential for multiple equilibria in the “crime commission game” – one involving a low cr...

We discuss the interrelationship between the treatment of the elderly, the nature of production, and the transmission of culture. Respect for the elderly is endogenous. Parents cultivate an interest in consuming culture in their children; when they are older, children compensate their elders proportional to the degree to which their interests were...

We discuss the interrelationship between treatment of the elderly, production technology , technological progress, and transmission of culture using a model in which respect for the elderly is endogenous. We focus our analysis on the relative well-being of the elderly, and employ the model to explain cross-societal patterns in the relative well-bei...

A useful tool in understanding the roots of the world geography of culture is the Age-Area-Hypothesis. The Age-Area Hypothesis (AAH) asserts that the point of geographical origin of a group of related cultures is most likely where the culture speaking the most divergent language is located. In spite of its widespread, multidisciplinary application,...

This paper examines the credibility of threats to punish criminal offenders. The motivation is the sequential nature of crime and punishment, which unfolds as follows: enforcers threaten punishment, offenders commit crimes (or are deterred), and enforcers (possibly comprising different decision makers) enact punishments. The cost of carrying out th...

In the typical hunter-gatherer society, decision-making is collective, yet decentralized, access to resources is shared, goods are typically distributed via reciprocal exchange, sharing, and gift-giving, and the distribution of both income and decision-making power is egalitarian. We argue these features are interrelated. We adopt an incentive-base...

The Age-Area Hypothesis (AAH) from historical linguistics is an often-used tool in reconstructing the current and past geographical distribution of culture. The AAH states that the point of origin of a group of related cultures is likely where the group's languages are most divergent or most diverse. In spite of its wide application, the hypothesis...

During the U.S. Civil War surgeons performed a vast number of surgeries. Whether surgery increased wounded soldiers’ chances of survival has been debated ever since. I analyze a unique observational data set gathered by Dr. Edmund Andrews, a surgeon with the 1st Illinois Light Artillery. I use Dr. Andrews’s data, model selection tools, and doubly r...

We study a labor market in which employers and workers search for a trading partner, and workers have private information about the value of a match. We show that competitive pressure can induce workers to take jobs for which they are ill suited. This leads to insufficient frictional unemployment and search, and lower average productivity and utili...

Please visit the following website for details: https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s458044.html

Please visit the following url for details and downloads: https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s457864.html

I describe algorithms for drawing from distributions using adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, introduce a Mata function for per-forming adaptive MCMC, amcmc(), and a suite of functions amcmc *() allowing an alternative implementation of adaptive MCMC. amcmc() and amcmc *() may be used in conjunction with models set up to work with Ma...

For a decription of the package and downloads, please visit: https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s457613.html

For details and further information about the package, please visit: https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s457620.html

Debtors' prisons have been commonplace throughout history, including in the United States. While imprisonment for debt no doubt elicited some repayment by benefactors of the debtor, we argue that its primary function was to deter default in the first place by giving borrowers an incentive to disclose hidden assets. Because of its cost, however, imp...

We study a labor market in which principals and agents must search for a trading partner, and agents have private information about the value of a match. We show that competitive pressure can induce agents to lie and over-state the value of the match. This leads to insufficient frictional unemployment and search, and lower average productivity and...

We analyze development trajectories of early civilizations where population size and technology are endogenous, and derive conditions under which such societies optimally ‘switch’ from anarchy to hierarchy – when it is optimal to elect and support a ruler. The ruler provides an efficient level of law and order, but creams off part of society's surp...

We examine whether advertising increases household debt by studying the initial expansion of television in the 1950's. Exploiting the idiosyncratic spread of television across markets, we use micro data from the Survey of Consumer Finances to test whether households with early access to television saw steeper debt increases than households with del...

The impact of copyright law on innovation is a topic of much debate. We use quarterly data on aggregate copyright applications in both the U.S. and Canada to estimate an empirical model of copyright applications. We measure changes in the breadth of copyright protection by tabulating outcomes of important court cases and new statutes pertaining to...

Empirical tests of the deterrence hypothesis - the idea that crime can be deterred through changes in the costs or benefits derived from committing crime - typically focus on estimation of the relationship between current crime rates and contemporaneous measures of economic conditions, demographics, and enforcement levels. We argue this approach is...

This paper estimates mortality and fertility rates prevailing in Ireland during the 25-year period before the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1849. A technique is developed to estimate the age-specific mortality level during the Famine and the number of Famine-related deaths. The paper concludes that fertility rates were declining during the period 1821...

We explore the relation between historical population density in former colonies and modern income distribution. A theoretical model highlights the potentially opposing effects of native population density on incentives for colonists to conquer or settle in new territories. While an abundant supply of native labor is an “asset” that drives up land...

I develop a model of the transition to agriculture that can be estimated using cross-cultural data on the incidence of agriculture. The model allows for endogenous growth effects in which population density and technological sophistication are symbiotically related, and also allows for technological spillovers from centers of civilization. The mode...

Redemption laws give mortgagors the right to redeem their property following default for a statutorily set period of time. This article develops a theory that explains these laws as a means of protecting landowners against the loss of nontransferable values associated with their land. A longer redemption period reduces the risk that this value will...

This paper estimates mortality and fertility rates prevailing in Ireland during the 25-year period before the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1849. A technique is developed to estimate the age-specific mortality level during the Famine and the number of Famine-related deaths. The paper concludes that fertility rates were declining during the period 1821...

I develop a model of mankind's initial transition to agriculture in which population, technological sophistication, and the degree of land enclosure are endogenous variables. The theoretical model describes the conditions under which population density and technological sophistication will provoke land enclosure and a switch to agriculture. The ste...

We consider why the gender division of labor is so often enforced by custom and why customary gender divisions of labor generally involve both direction and prohibition. In our formal model, agents first learn skills and then enter the marriage market. We show that wasteful behavior may emerge due to strategic incentives in specialization choice an...

In premodern societies, the residence of a newly wedded couple is often decided by custom. We formulate a theory of optimal postmarital residence rules based on contracting problems created by the nature of premarriage human capital investments. We argue that a fixed postmarital residence rule may mitigate a holdup problem by specifying marriage te...

Redemption laws give mortgagors the right to redeem their property following default for a statutorily set period of time. This paper develops a theory that explains these laws as a means of protecting landowners against the loss of nontransferable values associated with their land. A longer redemption period reduces the risk that this value will b...

We construct a database of U.S. federal court decisions pertaining to copyright and changes in federal statutory copyright law and use this database to assemble indices measuring changes in the breadth of copyright protection. We combine our indices with information on excess returns to equity from a quarterly panel of firms and estimate how the br...

We analyze development trajectories of early civilizations where population size and technology are endogenous, and derive conditions under which such societies optimally “switch” from anarchy to hierarchy – when it is optimal to elect and support a ruler. The ruler provides an efficient level of law and order, but creams off part of society’s surp...

This paper studies the Viking age – the roughly 300 year period beginning in 800 AD – from the perspective of the economics of conflict. The Viking age is interesting because throughout the time period, the scale of conflict increased – small scale raiding behaviour eventually evolved into large scale clashes between armies. With this observation i...

In pre-modern societies the residence of a newly-wedded couple is often decided by custom. We formulate a theory of optimal post-marital residence rules based on contracting problems created by the nature of pre-marriage human capital investments. We argue that a fixed post-marital residence rule may mitigate a hold-up problem by specifying marriag...

Following the rapidly growing literature on the Neolithic revolution, I develop a model of mankind’s initial transition to agriculture in which population and technological sophistication are both endogenous variables. I assume that total factor productivity in both agriculture and hunting and gathering depend on natural resource endowments and a g...

Economic models of crime and punishment implicitly assume that the government can credibly commit to the fines, sentences, and apprehension rates it has chosen. We study the government’s problem when credibility is an issue. We find that several of the standard predictions of the economic model are altered when commitment is taken into account. Spe...

This paper develops a general theory of land inheritance rules that distinguishes between two classes of rules: those allowing a testator discretion in disposing of his land (e.g., a best-qualified rule) and those constraining his choice (e.g., primogeniture). The primary benefit of the latter is to prevent rent seeking by heirs, but the cost is th...

The first professional base ball clubs came in two varieties: stock clubs, which paid their players fixed wages, and player cooperatives, in which players shared the proceeds after expenses. The authors argue that stock clubs were formed with players of known ability, whereas co-ops were formed with players of unknown ability. Although residual cla...

In this paper I discuss the application of some simple models of contracting, bargaining, and human capital acquisition can be employed to understand cross cultural variation in the form and nature of institutions governing land inheritance, marital residence, and the gender division of labor.

I apply features of the economics of conflict and spatial competition in developing a model of the emergence of land ownership in hunter-gatherer societies. Tenure regimes are the result of interactions between those seeking to defend claims to land and those seeking to infringe on those claims. The model highlights the dependence of land ownership...

Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effect...

In the U.S., title to land is protected by a system of public records that would-be buyers must consult in order to ensure that they are dealing with the true owner. Search is a costly process, however, especially as one goes back in time and the records deteriorate. This paper uses a sequential search model to determine how far back in time buyers...

A fundamental aspect of private property is the right to exclude trespassers or squatters. Nonetheless, in all 50 states a trespasser can acquire ownership by continuously occupying a parcel of land until the statutorily set period of limitations runs out. Although these adverse possession statutes appear to weaken property rights, this paper expla...

To assess the relationships between home death and a set of demographic, disease-related, and health-resource factors among individuals who died of cancer. Prospective cohort study. All adult deaths from cancer in Connecticut during 1994. Six thousand eight hundred and thirteen individuals who met all of the following criteria: died of a cancer-rel...

The first professional base ball clubs came in two varieties: stock clubs, which paid their players fixed wages, and player cooperatives, in which players shared the proceeds after expenses. We argue that stock clubs were formed with players of known ability, while co-ops were formed with players of unknown ability. Although residual claimancy serv...

I apply economic theory in the analysis of some of the enduring institutions of hunter-gatherer, peasant, and tribal societies. In chapter 1 I synopsize the development of economic anthropology as a field and the study of traditional societies in economics. In chapter 2 I study the interrelationship between two common hunter-gatherer institutions:...

The statute of limiations for accident cases puts an upper bound on the length of time following an accident that a victim can file suit. From a theoretical perspective, the optimal statute length balances the reduction in deterrence from a limit on suits against the savings in litigation and error costs. This paper formalizes the theoretical analy...