Published Papers in Refereed Journals
“The Three R’s of Teacher Pension Funding: Redistribution, Return, and Risk,” Educational Researcher, March 2023 (Vol. 52, No. 2), pp. 91-97.
“Reforming Teacher Pension Plans: The Case of Kansas, the 1st Teacher Cash Balance Plan,” Education Finance and Policy, Fall 2022 (Vol. 17, No. 4), 641-665.
(with Collin Hitt and James V. Shuls), “A $19 billion blind spot: State pension spending (PDF),” Educational Researcher, April 2020 (Vol. 49, No. 3), pp. 220-223.
“Cross-Subsidization of Teacher Pension Costs: The Impact of the Discount Rate,” Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, April 2020 (Vol. 19, No. 2), pp. 147-162. Version of record online (PDF), November 5, 2018.
(with Josh McGee), “Cross-Subsidization of Teacher Pension Costs: The Case of California (PDF),” Education Finance and Policy, Spring 2019 (Vol. 14, No. 2), pp. 327-354.
“The 80 Percent Pension Funding Target, High Assumed Returns, and Generational Inequity (PDF),” Contemporary Economic Policy, July 2018 (Vol. 36, no. 3), pp. 493-504.
“Accounting for the Rise in Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities: Faulty Counterfactuals and the Allure of Simple Gain/Loss Summations,” Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, January 2018 (vol. 17, no. 1), pp. 23-45. Version of record online 3 October, 2016.
“Collective Bargaining and District Costs for Teacher Health Insurance: An Examination of the Data from the BLS and Wisconsin,” Journal of School Choice, 2015 (vol. 9, no. 4), pp. 578-603.
(with Jeffery Dean), “The Rising Cost of Teachers’ Health Care,” Education Next, Spring 2013 (vol. 13, no. 2), pp. 66-72 (refereed research section); unabridged version.
(with Josh McGee), “Teacher Pension Incentives, Retirement Behavior, and Potential for Reform in Arkansas,” Education Finance and Policy, Fall 2010 (Vol. 5, no. 4), 492-518.
(with Michael Podgursky), “Distribution of Benefits in Teacher Retirement Systems and their Implications for Mobility,” Education Finance and Policy, Fall 2010 (Vol. 5, no. 4), 519-557.
(with Michael Podgursky), “Golden Handcuffs: Teachers who change jobs or move pay a high price,” Education Next, Winter 2010 (vol. 10, no. 1), pp. 60-66 (refereed research section); unabridged version.
(with Michael Podgursky), “Peaks, Cliffs and Valleys: The Peculiar Incentives in Teacher Retirement Systems and their Consequences for School Staffing,” Education Finance and Policy, Spring 2009 (Vol. 4, No. 2), 175-211.
(with Michael Podgursky), “Teacher Retirement Benefits,” Education Next, Spring 2009 (vol. 9, no. 2), pp. 58-63 (refereed research section); unabridged version. Updated quarterly at https://edre.uark.edu/_resources/pdf/costrellemployeecontributionrates.pdf
“Who Gains, Who Loses? The fiscal impact of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” Education Next, Winter 2009 (vol. 9, no. 1), pp. 62-69 (refereed research section).
(with Glenn C. Loury), “Distribution of Ability and Earnings in a Hierarchical Job Assignment Model,” Journal of Political Economy, 118 (December 2004), 1322-1363.
“Can Centralized Educational Standards Raise Welfare?” Journal of Public Economics, 65 (September 1997), 271-293.
“A Simple Model of Educational Standards,” American Economic Review, 84 (September 1994), 956-971.
“Accounting for the Causes and Consequences of Industrial Employment Shift,” Industrial Relations, 33 (July 1994), 346-364.
“An Economic Analysis of College Admission Standards,” Education Economics, 1 (No. 3, 1993), 227-241.
“Immiserizing Growth with Semi-Public Goods Under Consistent Conjectures,” Journal of Public Economics, 45 (August 1991), 383-389.
“Second-Best Subsidies in Monopolistic Competition,” Economics Letters, 34 (November 1990), 205-209.
“Consistent Conjectures in Monopolistic Competition,” International Journal of Industrial Organization, 8 (April 1990), 153-160.
“Methodology in the ‘Job Quality’ Debate,” Industrial Relations, 29 (Winter 1990), 94-110.
with Myron J. Gordon, “Keynesian Models of the Short Run and the Steady State,” Zeitschrift fÜr Nationalökonomie (Journal of Economics) 48 (1988), 355-373.
“Interest, Profits, and Suboptimality in a Demand-Constrained Macro Model,” Economic Journal 96 (December 1986), 919-941.
with G. DuGuay and G. Treyz, “Labour Substitution and Complementarity Among Age-Sex Groups,” Applied Economics 18 (July 1986), 777-791.
“Equilibrium and Optimality in a Mean-Variance Model,” Rand Journal of Economics 17 (Spring 1986), 122-132.
“Equilibrium Unemployment and Excess Capacity in Steady State and Growth Cycles,” Economica 51 (February 1984), 69-82.
“Profitability and Aggregate Investment Under Demand Uncertainty,” Economic Journal 93 (March 1983), 166-181.
“Overhead Labor and the Cyclical Behavior of Productivity and Real Wages,” Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics 4 (Winter 1981-82), 277-290.
“Stability of Zero Production Under Life-Cycle Savings,” Review of Economic Studies 48 (October 1981), 661-665.