Franklin Graves Mixon

Academic inquiry into surf tourism has paralleled its economic growth over the past several years. Still, this study addresses a remaining gap in this literature by explicitly examining the natural and human-made impediments to surf tourism, utilizing the specific case of Oceania. To do so, information is collected on impediments to surf tourism across Oceania and used to construct two surf tourism threat indexes. Tests of econometric specifications that regress the number of surfing tourists visiting the countries of Oceania each year on the surf tourism threat index and other variables are conducted. The results suggest that a one-point increase in the surf tourism threat index is associated with about 20% to 25% fewer annual surf tourists per million population, thus providing exploratory evidence of the efficacy of the index. As such, researchers might employ extensions of the index developed in this study to other areas around the globe in empirical analyses of the global surfing economy.

One of the issues stemming from the 2024–25 wildfires that ravaged southern California relates to the decision by California authorities to close access ramps connected to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). This decision led to a loss of access to some high‐quality surf breaks, which spawned a mass migration of local surfers. To better understand this migration, we conducted structured interviews with southern California surfers, with the findings revealing that aggression levels after the wildfires appeared lower than expected. They also suggest that, while tolerance increased in response to the migration of surfers, adherence to traditional surfing norms was at times visibly strained under heightened crowding. Results from an econometric model that further explains the migration choices made by surfers in the aftermath of the fires suggest that the in‐migration of surfers was most likely to occur at surf breaks that are known congested lineups and poor water quality.

The impact of violent crime has been shown to extend to business confidence, the timing and types of employment, and investments in human capital. The impact of violent crime on human behavior also potentially touches upon whether U.S. Representatives perform their legislative responsibilities or instead engage in shirking behavior. More specifically, the current political debate surrounding violent crime in Washington, D.C., gives rise to an interesting question: Do U.S. Representatives who reside in and represent notably dangerous Congressional districts view the nation's capital as a refuge from the violent crime that is persistent in those districts? To the extent they do, one would predict that the rates of vote‐skipping by U.S. Representatives from notably dangerous Congressional districts would be lower than those realized for all other U.S. Representatives. Using vote‐skipping (i.e., legislator shirking) data from the 118th Congress, this study undertakes such an investigation, finding that representatives from notably dangerous Congressional districts tend to skip almost 0.9%‐points fewer votes than representatives from all other Congressional districts. This impact represents almost 35% of mean percentage of votes skipped across all legislators in the U.S. House during the 118th Congress.

This study examines the market for Hunter Biden’s art, with an eye toward the art’s value as a rent seeking device that benefitted Hunter and the wider Biden family. More specifically, this study asserts that the usefulness of Hunter Biden’s art sales as a rent- or transfer-seeking tool can be established in any one of three ways. First, Hunter Biden’s paintings have not generally been judged positively. In fact, the quality of his artwork has been widely panned by esteemed art critics from around the globe, particularly in relation to transaction prices. Second, although information on the buyers of Hunter Biden’s art has, by design, been hidden from the public, one of the two known buyers received a prestigious presidential appointment from then-U.S. President Joseph Biden shortly after making a purchase, clearly giving the sale a privilege seeking appearance. Third, although data on Hunter Biden’s art sales are relatively scant, some quantitative evidence is provided in this study indicating that sale prices of the art and U.S. President Joseph Biden’s monthly approval ratings are positively and significantly correlated, a result that is consistent with the public choice theory of rent seeking.

We develop new theory on when and why the greater risk aversion often observed in female managers enhances or hinders organizational performance. Our framework centers on the alignment between cognitive propensities and the duration of the decision‐making task cycle. We argue that female managers' risk aversion enhances performance in contexts with ample time for deliberation, but dampens performance in contexts requiring rapid decisions. Consistent with this theory, analysis of archival data from 135 NCAA Division I women's basketball teams reveals that female head coaches outperform their male counterparts on long‐cycle decision tasks (e.g., recruiting), where time for decision‐making is ample. Conversely, male head coaches outperform on short‐cycle decision tasks (e.g., in‐game decisions), where time is limited, even after adjusting for the quality of human capital available.

Dating back to at least 1975, several academic studies have produced a ranking of economics departments (faculties) in the U.S. South. In revisiting this genre of the literature, this study builds upon prior work by (1) including all of the U.S. News & World Report ‐classified national universities and colleges located in the U.S. South, which is a list that has grown considerably in recent years, and (2) examining citations to economists' prior work rather than publications and page counts, which have been used by most prior studies. Following rational choice research on reputation and group identity, this study employs a quality metric that accounts for the efforts of all a department's faculty. Based on research from organizational behavior emphasizing the importance of top performers in an organization, this study also employs a separate quality metric that accounts for the efforts of an elite core of a department's faculty. Using the former metric, the University of Maryland prevails. When relying on the latter metric, Duke University earns the top‐ranked position.

Informal case applications often enhance our understanding of an economic principle’s breadth of import in everyday life, as well as whether the principle may be acknowledged and used in a manner that facilitates decision-making of businesses and consumers. The present study contributes to the case study literature by extending the work of others on the economics of the classic television sit-com, Seinfeld. More specifically, our extension focuses on several law and economics concepts, particularly concepts related to product liability, included in the sit-com that are of particular interest to businesses and consumers.

Decision making in the U.S. Supreme court offers a fascinating context in which to apply game theory. Landmark cases in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court are worth exploring in more detail from a game-theoretic point of view. We focus in this paper on the recent and much discussed ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade and, therefore, the constitutional right to an abortion. Using a game-theoretic framework, we discuss how leaking Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion to the national political media can be seen as an unconditional strategic move referred to as cutting off communication, making an action irreversible. In this case, it served conservative justices by cutting off communication between Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature demonstrating how straightforward game theory can be fruitfully applied to the study of constitutional economics.