What New Orleans Needs
9 September 2006
Editor, The New Orleans Times-Picayune
Dear Editor:
Like many others, the Rev. Nguyen Vien believes that post-Katrina rebuilding requires "more public resources" ("Promises to be kept," Sept. 9).
The case isn't clear. In a new study of locales receiving FEMA funds, West Virginia University economists Peter Leeson and Russell Sobel* find that such funds increase corruption in recipient areas. Specifically, these researchers conclude that "eliminating FEMA disaster relief would reduce corruption more than 20 percent in the average state."
And because Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the union, pumping even more taxpayer money into that state courts disaster.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* http://www.peterleeson.com/Weathering_Corruption.pdf
Editor, The New Orleans Times-Picayune
Dear Editor:
Like many others, the Rev. Nguyen Vien believes that post-Katrina rebuilding requires "more public resources" ("Promises to be kept," Sept. 9).
The case isn't clear. In a new study of locales receiving FEMA funds, West Virginia University economists Peter Leeson and Russell Sobel* find that such funds increase corruption in recipient areas. Specifically, these researchers conclude that "eliminating FEMA disaster relief would reduce corruption more than 20 percent in the average state."
And because Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the union, pumping even more taxpayer money into that state courts disaster.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* http://www.peterleeson.com/Weathering_Corruption.pdf
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Sunday May 20, 2007 at 3:07pm