NBER Digest OnLine, Feb 2005

Does the U.S. Outsource Polluting Industries?: "The cleaner U.S. manufacturing composition is not offset by dirtier imports. Rather, the composition of imports has also become cleaner."

School Accountability Raises Educational Performance: "The introduction of accountability systems leads to higher achievement growth than would have occurred without accountability. But simply reporting results of tests has a minimal impact on performance. The systems are much more effective if poor educational results have adverse consequences for the schools....However, the insistence by many American states in the 1990s on educational standards and testing for primary school students has not narrowed the educational gap between blacks and whites, although it did trim the Hispanic-white achievement gap."