Much of the academic literature that analyzes U.S. state-level restrictions on abortion focuses on parental involvement laws and the extent to which abortion is publicly funded through Medicaid. However, one shortcoming common to all of these studies is that they fail to analyze informed consent laws and other types of anti-abortion legislation that received constitutional protection through the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992). In this study, a series of regressions on a comprehensive time series cross-sectional data set provides evidence that several types of state-level anti-abortion legislation result in statistically significant declines in both the abortion rate and the abortion ratio. Furthermore, a series of natural experiments provide further evidence that abortion restrictions are correlated with reductions in the incidence of abortion.

Much of the academic literature that examines U.S. state tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) concludes that TELs are an ineffective mechanism for limiting state spending. However, one shortcoming common to all of these studies is their failure to take into account the incentives of the political actors who enact these TELs. I hypothesize that because of differences in incentives, TELs enacted by citizen initiatives will be more stringent and more effective than TELs passed by state legislatures. An examination of the provisions of the various TELs and a regression analysis support this hypothesis.

Objective. This article investigates direct and indirect relationships between state investments in education and economic growth measured as change in per-capita gross state product (GSP). As a basis for selecting control variables, it also applies a conceptual framework borrowed from the cross-national growth research. Method. We gathered 18 years of panel data on the 48 continental states and ran GLS regressions with panel corrected standard errors after executing an AR1 correction for autocorrelation. Results. Per-capita savings deposits, college attainment, and initial GSP are the most consistent predictors of GSP growth over the 18-year period investigated. However, all the independent variables in the model, except high school attainment, predict per-capita GSP growth from 1997 to 2005. Conclusion. The study supports the virtues of a path model and a crossnational framework for explaining the relationship between educational expenditures and GSP growth, especially from 1997 to 2005.The relationship between education and economic growth is a topic that has engaged economic theorists, participants in practical politics and public administration, and empirical researchers across several disciplines and continents for years. The volume of peer-reviewed research on the impact of education on economic growth is staggering-at least eight reviews have been published since 1995. Yet this sheer bulk of rigorous research fails to produce cumulative, consensually accepted findings. Although previous research demonstrates a preponderance of support for a positive relationship between education and economic growth, it fails to develop a common understanding of how education impacts economic growth and how much an impact education has on growth.One reason for the absence of consensually accepted findings is disagreement over how to operationalize human capital. Some studies investigate n Direct correspondence to Norman Baldwin, Box 870213, Department of Political Science, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0213 hnbaldwin@bama.ua.edui. Professor Baldwin will provide all data and coding information to those wishing to replicate the study.

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