The following are books, monographs, papers, and events by authors and fellows affiliated with the National Research Initiative. For more information on publishing with the NRI, click here or contact the NRI.
Current NRI Projects
Jeffrey Brown (University of Illinois) will host a one-day conference at AEI and compile an edited volume addressing the costs and vulnerabilities of various government insurance programs, such as terrorism risk insurance and deposit insurance, and exploring private market alternatives. Contributors include Kent Smetters (AEI and University of Pennsylvania) and George Pennacchi (University of Illinois).
As a visiting scholar at AEI, Tomas Philipson (University of Chicago) is writing a book on innovation and technological adoption in healthcare markets. With Anupam Jena (University of Chicago), Professor Philipson is writing a monograph on health and economic inequality in the United States.
Barry Chiswick (University of Illinois, Chicago) is compiling an edited volume that examines the positive experiences highly-skilled immigrants have had on the U.S. and other developed countries, and analyzes whether a U.S. policy should encourage more high-skill immigration.
In a book entitled Including Marginal Damages: The Next Step in Market-Driven Air Pollution Regulation, Robert Mendelsohn (Yale University) and Nicholas Muller (Middlebury College) argue that establishing cap-and-trade policies on the damage caused by pollutants such as SO2 and particulate matter is the next step in efficient pollution control.
Richard Rogerson (Arizona State University) will write a monograph detailing the effect of increased taxes on labor supply.
Rick Geddes (Cornell University) is working on a monograph on private sector involvement in surface transportation issues. His work will show how market pricing and private-public partnerships can ameliorate many of our surface transportation shortcomings.
Arthur C. Brooks (AEI and Syracuse) is working on a book, titled The Virtue of Vice, which sets out overwhelming evidence that moderate indulgence, not abstinence, makes us healthier, happier, and richer.
Edward L. Glaeser (Harvard University) and coauthor Joseph Gyourko (University of Pennsylvania) are working on a monograph that analyzes government intervention in the housing market.
Magnus Henrekson (Stockholm School of Economics) and Andreas Bergh (Lund University) are writing a monograph analyzing the evidence regarding the effect of the size of government as a percentage of GDP on economic growth.
James M. Griffin (Texas A&M) is writing on a monograph discussing energy markets, global warming, and oil security.
Steven J. Davis (AEI and University of Chicago) is organizing a monograph series on social and economic well-being and inequality with Erik Hurst (University of Chicago), Mark Aguiar (University of Rochester), Orazio Attanasio (University College London), Eric Battistin (University of Chicago), Mario Padula (University of Salerno), David Weinstein (Columbia University) and Christian Broda (University of Chicago). The series aims to broaden the discussion on economic well-being beyond income inequality and poverty indices to present a more detailed picture of social economic well-being.
Richard Burkhauser (Cornell University) will be an AEI visiting scholar this winter and spring 2008. He will write a monograph on reforming U.S. disability insurance policy.
Bob Maranto (Villanova University), Richard Redding (Villanova University), and Frederick M. Hess are compiling an edited volume on political correctness in academia. A conference featuring these papers will be forthcoming.
Ken Lehn (University of Pittsburgh) will write a monograph on public regulation of hedge funds.
Richard Vedder (AEI and Ohio University) is writing a book on economic growth and income inequality.
Frederick M. Hess (AEI) will establish the AEI Future of American Education Project and Working Paper Series to research current K-12 education issues. A committee consisting of many of the nation’s leading reform-minded education researchers will meet twice a year and publish working papers on important topics in K-12 education policy.
Andy Moriss (University of Illinois College of Law) is writing a book arguing that while offshore financial centers are typically portrayed as havens for corrupt financial practices such as money laundering, they have become key players in the financial services industry.
Political science professors Shep Melnick (Boston College) and Marc Landy (Boston College) are collaborating with AEI scholar Michael S. Greve to continue organizing seminars at AEI featuring papers on federalism. Click here for more information on The Federalism Project.
Long-time Congressional Budget Office Economist Marvin Phaup is writing a book on federal budget concepts and measures. It argues that the cash-basis of accounting, currently used in most of the federal budget, fails to properly represent the true opportunity cost of most government expenditures.
Joel Schwartz (NRI visiting fellow) is writing a monograph on the federal government’s policy on grants for building new roads on compliance with the EPA’s clean air regulations.
Lynn Kiesling (Northwestern University) and Andrew Kleit (Penn State University) will be contributing to an editied volume on electricity deregulation.
In The Spirit of Rationalism and the United States Supreme Court, Tony Peacock (Utah State University) argues that the Supreme Court’s rationalism and their specific vision regarding the Voting Rights Act defined identity politics in the late twentieth century.
Richard Tren (Africans Fighting Malaria) and Donald Roberts (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences) are collaborating on a book titled, The Coming Plagues that addresses the public health problems that are emerging from the ban on the use of DDT and other insecticides.
Abby Thernstrom (Manhattan Institute) will write a book discussing the entire Voting Rights Act and examines the laws impact on society.
Lee Lane (The Marshall Institute) is writing a monograph that will evaluate current climate change proposals and policies at all levels of government. He is also organizing several conferences to investigate the institutional aspects of greenhouse gas control schemes.
John Weicher (Hudson Institute) is writing a book examining changes in the past decade in causes and trends of wealth and equality.
Eric Helland (Claremont McKenna College) and Alex Tabarrok (George Mason University) are completing a monograph that discusses whether product liability law serves a deterrent function, using aviation safety as an example.
Richard Redding (Villanova University) is undertaking a study that illustrates the importance of sociopolitical diversity in determining educational outcomes.
In Housing Policy at a Crossroads, John Weicher (Hudson Institute) examines the impact of current U.S. housing policy with particular emphasis on housing vouchers.
Completed NRI Projects
R. Glenn Hubbard (AEI and Columbia Business School) and John L. Chapman (NRI Fellow) convened some of the world’s leading corporate finance scholars for a conference in November, The History, Impact, and Future of Private Equity: Ownership, Governance, and Firm Performance, addressing the role of private equity in today’s economy. Among the scholars that participated were: Michael C. Jensen (Harvard Business School), Josh Lerner (Harvard Business School), Steven N. Kaplan (University of Chicago), Karen H. Wruck (Ohio State University), and Adam Lerrick (AEI and Carnegie-Mellon).
Kate Litvak (University of Texas Law) prepared a working paper on the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on corporate risk-taking, using cross-listed companies to isolate the effects of the legislation. She focuses on risk-taking behavior by measuring the cost of debt and credit default swap rates (controlling for leverage), by examining share price volatility, changes in R&D investment, variations in earnings, and differences between market and book ratios, among other figures. The paper was presented at an AEI conference, Is Sarbanes-Oxley Impairing Corporate Risk-Taking? (Continued). Henry N. Butler (Northwestern University), Richard Geddes (Cornell University), and Alex J. Pollock (AEI) were discussants at the conference; Peter J. Wallison (AEI) moderated.
Ken Lehn (University of Pittsburgh), with Leonce Bargeron (University of Pittsburgh) and Chad Zutter (University of Pittsburgh), released a study that analyzes the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on corporate risk-taking. Click here for more information on the corresponding event, "Is Sarbanes-Oxley Impairing Corporate Risk-Taking?," and to download the Lehn, Bargeron, and Zutter paper.
 In Air Quality in America: A Dose of Reality on Air Pollution Levels, Trends, and Health Risks, NRI visiting fellow Joel M. Schwartz (AEI) and Steven F. Hayward (AEI) show in detail how activists have distorted the record on air pollution and offer an alternative analysis on air pollution levels, trends, and prospects in metropolitan areas across the United States. Click here for more information on the book forum event for Air Quality in America.
 In The Unintended Consequences of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, AEI visiting fellow Edward Blum draws upon public records, press accounts, and extensive personal interviews to chart the degeneration of the Voting Rights Act from a law designed to remove voting barriers for African Americans to a frivolous, costly gerrymandering tool. Click here to view the introduction.
In Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and DNA of the Chosen People, NRI visiting fellow Jon Entine vividly brings to life the profound implications of the Age of Genetics while illuminating one of today's most controversial topics: the connection between genetics and who we are, and specifically the question "Who is a Jew?"
Edited by AEI resident scholar Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr.(Thomas B. Fordham Foundation), No Remedy Left Behind: Lessons from a Half-Decade of NCLB brings together a team of respected education scholars and analysts assess how NCLB's interventions for poorly-performing schools are actually working.
 In The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, Amity Shlaes (Council of Foreign Relations) offers a reinterpretation of the Great Depression by telling the story of the forgotten man – the man who ultimately pays for, not benefits from, big government’s decisions and programs. Click here for more information on the book forum event for The Forgotten Man.
 Frederick M. Hess hosted an education policy conference on teacher training and certification entitled, “A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom: Appraising Old Answers and New Ideas.” Participants in the conference included Heidi Ramirez (Stanford University), James Wyckoff (Stanford University), Ronald Ferguson (Harvard University), David Leal (University of Texas at Austin), David Steiner (Boston University), and other scholars focused on education policy. The conference resulted in a book titled, A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom? edited by Frederick M. Hess, Andrew J. Rotherham (Progressive Policy Institute's 21st Century Schools Project), Kate Walsh (National Council on Teacher Quality).
 Shep Melnick (Boston College) and Marc Landy (Boston College) worked with AEI scholar Michael S. Greve to create a workshop series focused on the political economy of federalism.
 Richard Epstein (University of Chicago) and AEI scholar Michael S. Greve edited and compiled papers regarding federalism’s constitutional basis and its practical applications to create Federal Preemption: States' Powers, National Interests. Some of the contributing authors include Viet D. Dinh (Georgetown Law), Hal S. Scott (Harvard Law), Catherine M. Sharkey (Yale Law), Thomas W. Merrill (Columbia Law), Samuel Issacharoff (Columbia Law), and Stephen Gardbaum (UCLA Law).
 In Going Broke by Degree, Richard Vedder (University of Ohio and AEI) points out that higher education institutions have been able to get away with sharply rising costs and inflated tuition fees. He attributes this to three factors: 1) the growing differential earnings between high school and college graduates, 2) universities’ ability to engage in price discrimination, charging different customers different prices, and 3) third party payments to institutions of higher education have expanded rapidly.
 In September 2004, Chester Finn (Thomas B. Fordham Institute) collaborated with AEI scholar Frederick M. Hess to organize a conference (Leaving No Child Behind?) and a corresponding short publication (Inflating the Life Rafts of NCLB)examining the implementation of NCLB’s (No Child Left Behind) remedy provisions, including how the U.S. Department of Education has gone about imposing sanctions, the extent to which state and districts have cooperated, and the ways in which the supplemental services market has evolved to meet new needs. Some of the conference participants included Richard Lee Colvin (Columbia University), Robert Maranto (Villanova University), Alex Medler (University of Colorado), and David Plank (Michigan State University. As a result of the conference, Hess and Finn also coedited a book entitled, Leaving No Child Behind?
In Rethinking Rehabilitation, David Farabee (UCLA) discusses the difficulty of reforming criminals and provides possible solutions for a more effective approach.
 Gary Marchant (Arizona State University) and Kenneth L. Mossman (Arizona State University) produced a monograph, Arbitrary and Capricious: The Precautionary Principle in the European Union Courts, on the precautionary principle. This study examines how the European Union has used the principle in legal decisions in order to define and analyze its meaning and requirements.
In The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy, NRI visiting scholar Richard Vedder (Ohio University) and Wendell Cox (Wendell Cox Consultancy) analyze the economic and social impact of large retail chains in the U.S.
 In No Way Back: Why Air Pollution Will Continue to Decline, an AEI monograph on air pollution trends, NRI visiting fellow Joel Schwartz assesses the state of our air and addresses the misinformation regarding air quality. His research indicates that air pollution will continue to decline, even if no further regulatory steps are taken.
In his book, All the Water in the World, Roger Bate demonstrates that the solution to water allocation lies in the development of water markets, where price are set not by fiat but through trade, and where rights to water are assigned and protected by law.
At “Sovereignty and Indian Affairs,” an AEI conference on Indian Policy, Terry Anderson (PERC), Tom Flanagan (University of Calgary), David D. Haddock (Northwestern University), Robert J. Miller (Lewis & Clark College), and James L. Huffman (Lewis & Clark College) presented a set of papers dealing with the institutional structures that govern Indian reservations, explaining why these structures lead to dependency and suggesting reforms that could lead to a more prosperous existence for Indians.
 In Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics Is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture, edited by NRI visiting fellow Jon Entine, Thomas Jefferson Hoban (North Carolina State University), Andrew S. Natsios (Georgetown University), Martina Newell-McGloughlin (University of California, Davis), Robert L. Paarlberg (Wellesley College), C. S. Prakash (Tuskegee University), and others address both the risks and rewards of genetic modification of food; the differing paths that debate over genetic manipulation has followed in Europe and the developing world, in contrast to the United States; the debate’s impact on the commercial realities of companies’ developing new products; and ways to foster more constructive discussion of the costs and benefits of genetic modification to bring about more rational and internationally coordinated public policy.
In End of the Line, Joe Vranich focuses on the deterioration of Amtrak, both financially and physically since his last book, Derailed: What Went Wrong and What to do About America’s Passenger Trains, was published seven years ago. This book exposes how Amtrak--which is seeking record federal subsidies while continuing to resist meaningful reforms--is not as essential to mobility as it claims.
In Saving the Mail: How to Solve the Problems of the U.S. Postal Service, Rick Geddes (Cornell University) identifies types of reform that the U.S. Postal Service needs and outlines policy measures to implement them.
 In Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Socially Responsible Investing, edited by NRI adjunct fellow Jon Entine, Jarol B. Manheim (George Washington University), Alicia H. Munnell (Boston College), Charles E. Rounds Jr. (Suffolk University Law), and Annika Sunden (Boston College) examine the controversial use of public pension funds by the social investing movement.
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