This article estimates the county-level impact of the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) Credit targeted tax incentives to firms from 1995 through 2002. The authors employ a fixed effects instrumental variable model with spatial and time autocorrelation function tested on aggregate income, employment, the unemployment rate, and sectoral activity in manufacturing, wholesale, and construction. The authors find no impacts of the MEGA credit program on county-level aggregate employment, unemployment rates, wages, or incomes. Furthermore, there is no impact of manufacturing or warehousing credits on employment or wages in these sectors. The authors do find that MEGA credits produce a transient impact on construction employment (a drop in construction wages is statistically but not economically significant). The construction impact of MEGA is an estimated $123,000 investment per construction job. Generally, 75% of these jobs last for 1 year, with the remaining 25% lasting only into the second year.

In this paper, I estimate the impact of Wal-Mart on labor markets in Maryland. My goal is to compare estimation techniques that incorporate corrections for endogeneity of Wal-Mart's entrance and those that test for and fail to reject exogeneity in Wal-Mart's entrance decision. The instrumental variable approaches I test include those offered by Basker and Neumark et al., and a new test introduced in this paper. I also explain why differences in choice of sample time and location may lead to different findings as to the impact of Wal-Mart. I find that there is weak evidence of endogeneity in Wal-Mart's entrance decision, but that the bias is opposite of that anticipated by most researchers. Most interestingly, there are no significant differences across instrumental variable techniques employed in the literature. As for Wal-Mart in Maryland, that exposure to Wal-Mart leads to lower retail employment (from zero to 414 retail jobs), but significantly higher retail wages (as much as $1.95 per hour) at the county level. I also find that exposure to Wal-Mart has no effect on aggregate labor markets, though aggregate wages are positively affected, although the impact is very small (roughly $160 per year). I recommend that Maryland adopt a policy neutral approach to Wal-Mart. Eastern Economic Journal (2008) 34, 56–73. doi:10.1057/palgrave.eej.9050002

Cost overruns in weapon system purchases have plagued the Department of Defense (DoD) throughout its history and have resulted in schedule delays and potentially reduced combat capability. This thesis created an empirical model that begins to explain those cost overruns. The model describes how changes in defense budgets, consolidation of the defense industry, acquisition reform, war, and cost estimating error are related to cost overruns.

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