Research

Published Research

Napsterizing Pharmaceuticals: Access, Innovation, and Welfare

Authors: James W. Hughes, Michael J. Moore, Edward A. Snyder

We analyze the effects on consumers of an extreme policy experiment – Napsterizing’ pharmaceuticals – whereby all patent rights on branded prescription drugs are eliminated for both existing and future prescription drugs without compensation to the patent holders. The question of whether this policy maximizes consumer welfare cannot be resolved on an a priori basis due to an obvious tradeoff: While accelerating generic entry will yield substantial gains in consumer surplus associated with greater access to the current stock of pharmaceuticals, future consumers will be harmed by reducing the flow of new pharmaceuticals to the market. 

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Published Research

The Role of Policy Attributes in the Diffusion of Innovations

Authors: Craig Volden, Todd Makse

Studies of policy diffusion have given insufficient attention to the role that characteristics of the policies themselves play in determining the speed of policy diffusion and the mechanisms through which diffusion occurs. We adopt Everett Rogers’ (1983, 2004) attribute typology from the diffusion of innovations literature and apply it to a sample of 27 policy innovations from the sphere of criminal justice policy in the U.S. states between 1973 and 2002.

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Published Research

Coalitional Politics and Logrolling in Legislative Institutions

Authors: Craig Volden, Clifford J. Carrubba

We examine how a foresighted legislative chamber will design its institutions in response to ex ante incentives for universalism and ex post incentives for minimum winning coalitions and what coalitions will form as a result. To do so, we develop a model of vote trading with an endogenous voting rule and coalition formation process.

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Published Research

Asymmetric Effects of Intergovernmental Grants: Analysis and Implications for U.S. Welfare Policy

Authors: Craig Volden

Theories of federal grants to states and localities suggest that these grants have a stimulative effect on spending, causing recipient governments to expand and contract programs along with changes in the grants. However, policymakers may respond differently to grant decreases than to grant increases because they face political and bureaucratic pressures to expand programs.

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