✨New Article✨ How does FDI affect rural counties? Kara Jones estimates the effect of a $1.2 billion investment by Kia Motors in a rural Georgia county. Findings indicate it raised employment, but did not affect income.

✨New Article✨ Veterans face a high level of underemployment. Cipran Domnisoru estimates the impact of G.I. bills on underemployment, identifying several determinants.

✨New Article✨ How does trade openness influence occupational mobility? Hang Shan and Naiqian Wu find that liberalization of trade can foster social mobility and promote equitable labor opportunities.

2025 Best Paper Award for Contemporary Economic Policy @cep-sky.bsky.social Congratulations to the authors of 'The fertility gap and economic freedom' - Clara E. Piano, Lyman R. Stone Read the article now: https://bit.ly/4pa1XKp

✨New Article✨ Chang Liu and Guangrong Ma show how targeted reserve requirements shape both bank behavior and regional economic outcomes, documenting strengths and limitations of using reserve-based instruments to engineer credit expansion.

✨New Article✨ The Porter Hypothesis says environmental regulation can make firms more profitable by forcing innovation. Robert D. Mohr argues that when environmental regulation does benefit firms, it is a sign that regulators failed to price the externality correctly.

✨New Article ✨ Jordan D. Hillman finds no evidence that unilateral no-fault divorce laws raised divorce rates. Instead, he argues the rise in divorce rates was likely underway regardless of legal reform.

✨New Article✨ China implemented strict measures to prevent the spread of COVID. This paper explores the composition of risk sharing in between Chinese provinces before and during the pandemic.

✨New Article✨ How can governments combat tax evasion? This new study looks at a Taiwanese policy in which tax evaders face jail time. Findings provide empirical patterns that may inform enforcement practice against incarcerated tax evaders.

✨New Article✨ The impact of automation on the economy can not be understated. In this new article, Carol A. Scotese finds that automation displaced non-college educated men from both routine tasks and mid-skill abstract tasks.

✨New Article✨ China's carbon markets represent an interesting experiment in market-based corporate green governance. Li and Zhao find that these policies enhance green governance by easing constraints and stimulating innovation.

✨New Article ✨ How does firm adoption of AI coding assistants affect labor market outcomes for software engineers? Baird, Carpanelli, Xu, and Xu find that firm adoption is associated with a higher probability of entry level hires.

✨New Article✨ How do value added tax credit refunds affect outward Foreign Direct Investment? Qilin Mao and Yueqing Wang find that these credits promotes firms' outward FDI. Additionally, the policy has a stronger effect on non state owned firms.

✨New Article ✨ Cities are told the NFL Draft brings big economic gains. This paper suggests otherwise. E. Frank Stephenson finds, at best, small effects on hotel revenue and occupancy.

✨New Article✨ Climate shocks can be a major constraint for developing nations. This study by Suyeon Ro and Jongwook Lee investigates how climate shocks affect food security and resilience in Malawi.

✨New Article✨ Economic degrowth has become a trending topic over recent years. Acharya, Geloso, and Psurek formalize a model of degrowth and find little support for the model's central prediction

✨New Article✨ In the 1990's, the city of San Diego agreed to buy every unsold ticket to Chargers games at whatever price the team set. This article looks at the consequences of the policy, finding that ticket prices increased less than intuition may suggest.

✨New Article ✨ Are students considering state marijuana laws when choosing where to attend college? New evidence suggests yes- large schools in states where recreational marijuana is legal see an increase in out-of-state enrollment over the sample period.

✨New Article✨ How do firms create, maintain, and use political power? This study introduces a new measurement of corporate political power and finds that local political connections pay off more than national connections.

✨New Article✨ How do you make sure welfare benefits reach the people who need them? This paper examines China's Dibao program and suggests methods that combine income verification with community-based assessments can help optimize the design of social protection programs.

✨New Article✨ Monetary policy like inflation targets can only be effective if they are credible. Dieter Nautz uses German survey data from 2019-2024 to find that the ECB's delayed rate hikes- not just high inflation- were what eroded public trust in its 2% target.

✨New Article✨ What do envirnomental and natural resource economists agree on? In a new article, @learachel.bsky.social , @johnwhitehead81.bsky.social and Timothy C. Haab survey experts to guage levels of consensus in the field on topics such as climate change, air quality, and more.

✨New Article✨ What are the consequences of losing parental insurance at age 26? Dajung Jun finds a sharp drop in coverage at the cutoff, concentrated among unmarried, unemployed, and nonmetropolitan adults.

✨New Article✨ Timothy Bianco and Nicholas Moellman examine the effect of household debt on safety-net participation. Using a PVAR, they find TANF participation is generally unresponsive to debt shocks, while SNAP participation responds positively, significantly, and persistently to changes to debt.

✨New Article✨ How does economic freedom affect patience and risk tolerance? In a new article, Ryan Kitzan, Adam Stivers, and Nabamita Dutta investigate this relationship and find that countries with both higher economic freedom and risk tolerance also exhibit higher patience.

✨New Issue✨ The January 2026 issue of Contemporary Economic Policy has been published. It contains 11 original research articles on a wide range of topics, from teenage drinking to borrowing against future Social Security wealth. Check it out here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14657287...

Contemporary Economic Policy: Vol 44, No 1

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onlinelibrary.wiley.com

✨New Article✨ How are consumers impacted by the elimination of low-denomination coins? In a highly relevant article, Doron Sayag, Avichai Snir, and Daniel Levy find that Israel's elimination of the 1¢ and 5¢ coin equivalents led to a relativley small rounding tax on consumers.

✨New Article✨ Does nurse practitioner scope of practice expansion affect safety net participation? Owen Fleming and Lilly Springer find that 4-5 years after NP's are granted full practice authority, WIC participation increases by 4.1%.

✨New Article✨ Natural disasters can have a profound impact on a society. Serkan Demirkılıç, Zuhal Özbay Daş, and Güney Aydin investigate the labor market effects of the 2011 earthquakes in eastern Turkey and find, among other outcomes, an increase in low-skilled employment.

✨New Article✨ How did city-level vaccine mandates affect vaccine uptake and COVID-19 transmission? Authors Vitor Melo, Elijah Nelson, and Dorothy Kemboi find no pattern of significant effects, suggesting local mandates may be less effective than national mandates.