Determinants of Social Spending

In today's NY Times, the work of my colleagues Alberto Alesina and Ed Glaeser gets some attention:

�Racial divisions and ethnic divisions reduce incentives for people to be generous to others through social welfare,� said Alberto Alesina, a professor of economics at Harvard. �This is very unfortunate. But as social scientists, we can�t close our eyes to something we don�t like.�