Rand Ressler

Georgia Southern University | GSU · Department of Finance

We explore the relationship between income, race and the probability of being arrested. Our data set is comprised of individuals who have all violated federal marijuana laws, some of whom have been arrested. We reason that the cost of arresting a poor individual with diminished social status is lower. Our empiricism reveals that the probability of...

Is there a link between designated driver usage and alcohol consumption? We hypothesize that the use of a designated driver lowers the cost of drinking which, in turn, increases alcohol consumption. We examine the effect on drinking intensity (which incorporates low levels of alcohol use) and binge drinking (which measures greater alcohol use), usi...

This study examines the potential benefits of social networks through the development of high school football players into big-time collegiate football stars. Many of these young men have spent 17 or 18 years surrounded and supported by family members, friends, and religious and civic organizations. That social network is, in a very short time fram...

This study uses the voter-shopping construct to analyze signaling of moderateness in the U.S. Senate. We compare legislator-provided signals (advertising)—such as membership in the U.S. Senate’s Centrist Coalition—with actual voting histories in order to characterize these types of advertising cues as sincere or insincere. Following recent research...

Economists have long studied the determinants and effects of income transfers. This article examines an indirect effect of welfare payments on participating individuals: an increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates. Several studies have found a significant and positive link between the size of welfare benefits and out-of...

A bstract . Urban and labor economists have examined macro and micro effects of the passage of right‐to‐work laws in various states. These laws prohibit unions from negotiating bargains that require new and previous hires to join the union. The results have been suggestive, pointing out that cost‐of‐living indices are dramatically influenced by the...

This paper examines empirically the state-level impact of capital punishment on multiple murder rates for the period 1995–1999. In baseline tests—tests employing mixed panel data and using an estimation technique combining aspects of both fixed- and random-effects models—we show that executions reduce the single murder rate and that the use of elec...

This paper examines empirically the state‐level impact of capital punishment on multiple murder rates for the period 1995‐1999. In baseline tests—tests employing mixed panel data and using an estimation technique combining aspects of both fixed‐ and random‐effects models—we show that executions reduce the single murder rate and that the use of elec...

Economists have long studied the determinants and effects of income transfers. This article examines an indirect effect of welfare payments on participating individuals: an increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted disease ( STD ) rates. Copyright 2006 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc..

Clarke and Strauss (1998), among others, have determined that the magnitude of financial transfers to unwed mothers is positively related to out-of-wedlock fertility rates. Increases in fertility rates must be accompanied by increases in unprotected sex, and unprotected sex allows for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. We hypothesize that...

The present article analyzes signaling by elected officials of moderate or centrist legislative behavior from a benefits/costs perspective. To do so, we provide statistical evidence regarding the tendency of senators to join the U.S. Senate Centrist Coalition, a congressional membership organization of moderate legislators. We find that changes in...

The present article analyzes signaling by elected officials of moderate or centrist legislative behavior from a benefits/costs perspective. To do so, we provide statistical evidence regarding the tendency of senators to join the U.S. Senate Centrist Coalition, a congressional membership organization of moderate legislators. We find that changes in...

Utilizing an established economic framework grounded in Becker's (1981) path-breaking analysis of altruism and envy within the family, this paper explores the determinants of hate crimes, also known as bias-motivated crimes. Making use of a unique data set on hate crimes compiled by the FBI, we estimate the determinants of hate crimes across states...

This study presents a political model which suggests that monopoly legislators form cartel-like organizations (referred to as "memberships") in an effort to extract greater benefits in the political process. Based on a model by Coker and Crain (1994) that provides theoretical and statistical arguments for congressional committees as loyalty-generat...

This paper examines the relationship between universities which house law schools and appropriations per student. Specifically, it is hypothesized that universities with law schools will have higher state appropriations, other things the same, because these universities are likely to have more alumni in the state legislature. This argument is suppo...

Economists have contributed a great deal of research, both theoretical and empirical, to the study of marital formation and dissolution. Many empirical examinations of marriage and divorce rates exist based on Becker's seminal contributions to the literature. All of these divorce studies are single equation models, with female earnings assumed exog...

Many factors affect the supply and demand characteristics of artists' output.This exploratory study focuses on a ``supply-induced'' demand effect –the death of the artist and the assurance that, from the perspective of thedurable goods monopolist, the output of the artist ends. While not purportingto be a formal test of that proposition, we observe...

The present note examines price dispersions inthe music recording industry between new release andmid-line (older) recordings. The model employs theframework developed within the industrial economicsliterature and provides empirical results suggestingthat new release prices are lower than those ofmid-level recordings. This result follows fromdiffer...

The positive correlation between the rates of cohabitation and divorce has long been established. This paper seeks to determine the direction of causation between these two variables. A simultaneous equations model is specified with cohabitation and divorce rates as endogenous variables and using data aggregated to the state level for 1990.This pro...

This study offers survey evidence that measures the diffusion of the rent-seeking concept within principles of economics textbooks and classrooms. Data from 18 widely used, mainstream principles textbooks and survey data from students at three large, public universities in the South suggest that dissemination of this concept has been largely succes...

Estimate bias and “no-sales” are investigated in the context of Latin American Art auctions conducted in New York between 1977 and 1996. We find that, using a new method for calculating bias, both Sotheby's and Christie's overestimated art (oil-on-canvas pieces) by 2.7 percent. The inclusion of “no-sales” raises that proportion to a full one-third...

This paper utilizes an established economic framework, grounded in Becker's (1981) path-breaking analysis of altruism and envy within the family, to explore hate crimes, also known as bias-motivated crimes. After developing a hate crime economic framework, we make use of a unique data set on hate crime data compiled by the FBI since 1992 to estimat...

Without Abstract

The economic effects of the minimum wage have become increasingly ambiguous. Historically, economists have asserted that increases in the minimum wage result in increases in unemployment. This relationship has been challenged recently by Card and Krueger, Katz and Krueger, and Card. These authors have provided empirical evidence that seems to indic...

Investigates empirically the importance of buyer characteristics as well as product and service classifications on the informational content of advertising supply by sellers utilizing Yellow Pages advertisements from six US cities. The analysis and tests extend the categories used in previous tests by including so-called “credence goods” by analysi...

When taxes raise the full price of a good above that in nearby jurisdictions consumers have an incentive to cross into the lower-price jurisdiction to make purchases. Using a simple microeconomic model of the consumer's border-crossing decision, we derive an econometric model to test the significance of border crossing and estimate the magnitude of...

The economics and sociology literature has given much attention to the proper role of athletics in the mission of institutions of higher education. This discussion has turned into a debate; one argument holds that athletics fit nicely into the mission of most colleges. However, it has also been argued that athletics impede the students and faculty...

Union formation behavior has undergone vast changes over the past 25 years in virtually all Western countries. Key components of the change have been the increase in cohabitational unions and the decline in the marriage rate. Although this has important implications for both household and market production activities, no previous economic studies h...

Without Abstract

Part of the full cost of participating in higher education is foregone employment. Increases in the unemployment rate imply a lowering of foregone employment opportunities. This, in turn, lowers the full cost of higher education, leading to an increase in the quantity demanded of such education. When the distinction between public and private educa...

Faculty salaries at American educational institutions are often assumed to be lower in the South than in the non-South. This paper presents a model inclusive of faculty and job characteristics for estimating the regional differential at community colleges (local markets) and at institutions awarding the bachelor's degree and above (national market)...

Uganda was widely viewed as a public health success for curtailing its AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s. To understand the reasons for the dramatic decline, we build a simulation model of HIV transmission using newly discovered data on HIV status and sexual behavior from the relevant time period. We then model the impact of abstinence, fidelity, co...