Publications
Publications
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- Faculty Publications (182)
- April 2011 (Revised February 2016)
- Case
Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap
By: Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
This case describes the economic development problems faced by the small Caribbean-island country of Jamaica over most of the past half-century. The Jamaican economy showed relatively strong growth in the 1960s but stagnated in the 1970s. By the end of that decade,... View Details
- April 2011 (Revised December 2017)
- Case
Latvia: Navigating the Strait of Messina
By: Rafael Di Tella, Rawi Abdelal and Natalie Kindred
This case describes Latvia's transition from a Soviet republic into an EU member, its economic boom and subsequent bust in 2008, and its policy response. After implementing significant economic and political reforms in order to qualify for EU membership in 2004, Latvia... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised June 2016)
- Case
Hungary: Economic Crisis and a Shift to the Right
By: Rafael M. Di Tella, Matthew C. Weinzierl and Jacob Kuipers
Instructors may also obtain a Teaching Note, written by this case's author, that provides suggestions for using this case effectively in the classroom. View Details
- March 2011 (Revised December 2017)
- Background Note
The IMF: The Washington Consensus, the Critics, and the New Challenges as China Rises
By: Rafael M. Di Tella, Natalie Kindred and Monica Baraldi
How the International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines and carries out its mandate has evolved considerably since 1944, when it was founded to serve a vital but narrow function in maintaining the global foreign exchange system and thus enabling international trade. This... View Details
- 2011
- Article
Free to Punish? The American Dream and the Harsh Treatment of Criminals
By: Rafael Di Tella
We describe the evolution of selective aspects of punishment in the U.S. over the period 1980-2004. We note that imprisonment increased around 1980, a period that coincides with the "Reagan revolution" in economic matters. We build an economic model where beliefs about... View Details
Keywords: Crime and Corruption
- 2010
- Working Paper
Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs about Others
By: Rafael Di Tella and Ricardo Perez-Truglia
In this paper we present the results from a "corruption game" (a dictator game modified so that the second player can accept a side payment that reduces the overall size of the pie). Dictators (silently) treated to have the possibility of taking a larger proportion of... View Details
- December 2010
- Article
Happiness Adaptation to Income and to Status in an Individual Panel
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
We study adaptation to income and to status using individual panel data on the happiness of 7,812 people living in Germany from 1984 to 2000. Specifically, we estimate a "happiness equation" defined over several lags of income and status and compare the long-run... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Peronist Beliefs and Interventionist Policies
By: Rafael Di Tella and Juan Dubra
We study the logic of Peronist interventionist polices and the beliefs that support them. Instead of a comprehensive approach, we focus on three elements. First, we study beliefs and values about the economic system present in Peron's speeches during the period... View Details
- October 2010
- Teaching Note
The International Criminal Court (TN)
By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
Teaching Note for 710060. View Details
- 2010
- Chapter
Crime Distribution and Victim Behavior during a Crime Wave
By: Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani and Ernesto Schargrodsky
The study of how crime affects different income groups faces the difficulty that crime-avoiding activities vary across these groups. Thus, a lower victimization rate in one group may not reflect a lower burden of crime, but rather a higher investment in crime... View Details
- 2010
- Book
The Economics of Crime: Lessons for and from Latin America
By: Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Edwards and Ernesto Schargrodsky
- 2010
- Chapter
A Resource Belief-Curse: Oil and Individualism
By: Rafael Di Tella, Juan Dubra and Robert MacCulloch
We study the correlation between a belief concerning individualism and a measure of luck in the US during the period 1983-2004. The measure of beliefs is the answer to a question related to whether the poor should be helped by the government or if they should help... View Details
Keywords: History; Natural Environment; Non-Renewable Energy; Values and Beliefs; Price; Poverty; Policy; Economy; United States
- April 2010 (Revised October 2010)
- Case
The International Criminal Court
By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
This Case describes a controversial 2010 decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and alludes to some of the broader challenges of building international institutions. The case briefly highlights certain milestones in international relations preceding the... View Details
- March 2010 (Revised December 2010)
- Case
The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream"
By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Laura Winig
In 2010, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison operator in the U.S., was considering expansion options. The company's largest customers, federal and state governments, were under economic pressure to reduce the incarceration rate and... View Details
- 2010
- Chapter
Happiness Adaptation to Income beyond 'Basic Needs'
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
We test for whether, once "basic needs" are satisfied, there is happiness adaptation to further gains in income using three data sets. Individual German Panel Data from 1985 to 2000, and data on the well-being of over 600,000 people in a panel of European countries... View Details
- 2009
- Chapter
Should Central Banks Maximize Happiness? Happiness, Contentment and Other Emotions for Central Banks
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
- 2009
- Working Paper
Anger and Regulation
By: Rafael Di Tella and Juan Dubra
We propose a model where voters experience an emotional cost when they observe a firm that has displayed insufficient concern for other people's welfare (altruism) in the process of making high profits. Even with few truly altruistic firms, an equilibrium may emerge... View Details
- Article
Why Doesn't Capitalism Flow to Poor Countries?
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
We show that capitalism is far from common around the world. Outside a small group of rich countries, heavy regulation of business, leftist rhetoric, and interventionist beliefs flourish. We relate these phenomena to the presence of corruption, with causality running... View Details