Research Interests for Philip J. Cook

One strand of Dr. Cook's research addresses the prevention of alcohol-related problems through restrictions on alcohol availability. A second strand concerns the economics of crime, with focus on violence. His recent books (with Jens Ludwig) include Gun Violence: The Real Costs (Oxford University Press, 2000), which develops and applies a framework for assessing costs that is grounded in economic theory and is quite at odds with the traditional "COI" framework; and Evaluating Gun Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), an edited collection of original contributions. Dr. Cook has also written on the state lotteries with Charles Clotfelter (Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America, Harvard University Press, 1989), and with Robert H. Frank on the causes and consequences of the growing inequality of earnings (The Winner-Take-All Society, The Free Press, 1995).

Recent Publications

1. P.J. Cook, R MacCoun, C Muschkin, and J Vigdor, The negative impacts of starting middle school in sixth grade, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 27 no. 1 (Winter, 2008)
2. C. Carpenter and P.J. Cook, Cigarette taxes and youth smoking: New evidence from national, state, and local Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, Journal of Health Economics, vol. 27 (2008), pp. 287-299 [abs]
3. S.B. Sorenson and P.J. Cook, "We've got a gun?": Comparing reports of adolescents and their parents about household firearms, Journal of Community Psychology (2008)
4. P.J. Cook, Crime in the City, in Urban Enigma: City Problems, City Prospects, edited by Robert P. Inman (2008), Princeton University Press
5. P.J. Cook, Robbery, in Oxford Handbook of Crime and Public Policy, edited by Michael Tonry (2008), University of Chicago Press