Law Commons^™

Can Sharing Be Taxed?, Shu-Yi Oei, Diane M. Ring

Faculty Scholarship

In the past few years, we have seen the rise of a new model of production and consumption of goods and services, often referred to as the “sharing economy.” Fueled by startups such as Uber and Airbnb, sharing enables individuals to obtain rides, accommodations, and other goods and services from peers via personal computer or mobile application in exchange for payment. The rise of sharing has raised questions about how it should be regulated, including whether existing laws and regulations can and should be enforced in this new sector or whether new ones are needed.

In this Article, we explore …

Benefit-Cost Analysis And Distributional Weights: An Overview, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

Standard cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is insensitive to distributional concerns. A policy that improves the lives of the rich, and makes the poor yet worse off, will be approved by CBA as long as the policy’s aggregate monetized benefits are positive. Distributional weights offer an apparent solution to this troubling feature of the CBA methodology: adjust costs and benefits with weighting factors that are inversely proportional to the well-being levels (as determined by income and also perhaps non-income attributes such as health) of the affected individuals.

Indeed, an academic literature dating from the 1950s discusses how to specify distributional weights. And …

The Economics Of The Political Parties: A Comparison Of Economic Performance Under Conservatives And Liberals, Austin Fischer

Honors Program Projects

A topic that has long been a subject of debate is which party in America’s two-party political system has better economic policies. Democrats tout strong economic records, boasting of their tried and true Keynesian principles. Republicans point to the accomplishments of recent presidents in combating recessions with supply-side ideals. This project attempts to look at the actual performance of the economy under Republican and Democratic presidents since 1950, and come to an unbiased conclusion on whose policies really do work better.

This project looks at GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, disposable income, and budget deficits to determine which party’s policies help …