Books in the National Bureau of Economic Research Series on Long-Term Factors in Economi series

Using transaction cost analysis and public choice theory, this book explores the growth of the federal bureaucracy and the political and economic obstacles to reforming it. It examines the political and economic forces that have shaped the civil service from the Pendleton Act of 1883 to today.

Presents a reappraisal of the causes and consequences of a movement that ultimately transformed the nature of social insurance and the American workplace. This book argues that workers' compensation, rather than being an early progressive victory, succeeded because all relevant parties - labor, lawyers, and legislators - benefited from the ruling.

Tells the story of the disastrous housing market during the Great Depression and the extent to which an immensely popular New Deal relief program, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), was able to stem foreclosures by buying distressed mortgages from lenders and refinancing them.