Designed to Fail: Effects of the Default Option and Information Complexity on...
We ask why so few student loan borrowers enroll in Income Driven Repayment when the majority would benefit from doing so. To do so we run an incentivized laboratory experiment using a facsimile of the...
View ArticleClimatic Roots of Loss Aversion -- by Oded Galor, Viacheslav Savitskiy
This research explores the origins of loss aversion and the variation in its prevalence across regions, nations and ethnic group. It advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that the...
View ArticleRationalizing Rational Expectations? Tests and Deviations -- by Xavier...
In this paper, we build a new test of rational expectations based on the marginal distributions of realizations and subjective beliefs. This test is widely applicable, including in the common situation...
View ArticleImproving Last-Mile Service Delivery using Phone-Based Monitoring -- by...
Improving "last mile" public-service delivery is a recurring challenge in developing countries. Could the rapid adoption of mobile phones provide a simple, cost-effective means to do so? We evaluate...
View ArticlePension Reform and Return to Work Policies -- by Maria D. Fitzpatrick
For many people, working after beginning retirement benefit collection is a way to enhance financial security by increasing income. Existing research has shown that retirees are sensitive to the Social...
View ArticleJob Seekers' Perceptions and Employment Prospects: Heterogeneity, Duration...
This paper analyses job seekers' perceptions and their relationship to unemployment outcomes to study heterogeneity and duration-dependence in both perceived and actual job finding. Using longitudinal...
View ArticleChina's Real Estate Market -- by Chang Liu, Wei Xiong
Since the 1990s, China's real estate market has experienced a dramatic and long-lasting boom across China. This boom has led to substantial concerns in both academic and policy circles that the rising...
View ArticleThe Mandarin Model of Growth -- by Wei Xiong
China's economic reforms over the past 40 years have led to a mixed economic structure with the government playing a key role in an increasingly market-driven economy. This paper expands a standard...
View ArticleTechies, Trade, and Skill-Biased Productivity -- by James Harrigan, Ariell...
We study the impact of firm level choices of ICT, R&D, exporting and importing on the evolution of productivity and its bias towards skilled occupations. We use a novel measure of the propensity of...
View ArticleWIC Participation and Relative Quality of Household Food Purchases: Evidence...
We examine the effect of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on the quality of household food purchases using the National Household Food Acquisition and...
View ArticlePartisan Professionals: Evidence from Credit Rating Analysts -- by Elisabeth...
Partisan bias affects the decisions of financial analysts. Using a novel hand-collected dataset that links credit rating analysts to party affiliations from voter registration records, we show that...
View ArticleThe Microeconomic Foundations of Aggregate Production Functions -- by David...
Aggregate production functions are reduced-form relationships that emerge endogenously from input-output interactions between heterogeneous producers and factors in general equilibrium. We provide a...
View ArticleHigh-Capacity Donors' Preferences for Charitable Giving -- by Mackenzie...
How can charities solicit high-capacity donors to provide the funds for matching grants and leadership gifts? In conjunction with one of Texas A&M University's fundraising organizations, we...
View ArticleGeographical Roots of the Coevolution of Cultural and Linguistic Traits -- by...
This research explores the geographical origins of the coevolution of cultural and linguistic traits in the course of human history, relating the geographical roots of long-term orientation to the...
View ArticleThe Economic Assimilation of Irish Famine Migrants to the United States -- by...
The repeated failure of Ireland's potato crop in the late 1840s led to a major famine and a surge in migration to the US. We build a dataset of Irish immigrants and their sons by linking males from...
View ArticleSome Evidence on Secular Drivers of U.S. Safe Real Rates -- by Kurt G....
We study long run correlations between safe real interest rates in the U.S. and over 30 variables that have been hypothesized to influence real rates. The list of variables is motivated by an...
View ArticleOrganizing Global Supply Chains: Input Cost Shares and Vertical Integration...
We study whether and how the technological importance of an input - measured by its cost share - is related to the decision of whether to "make" or "buy" that input. Using detailed French international...
View ArticleThe Contribution of Patients and Providers to the Overuse of Prescription...
Overuse of medical care is often attributed to an informed expert problem, whereby doctors induce patients to purchase unnecessary treatments. Alternatively, patients may drive overuse of medications...
View ArticleTax Reform Made Me Do It! -- by Michelle Hanlon, Jeffrey L. Hoopes, Joel Slemrod
This paper examines corporations' actions, and statements about actions, following the tax law change known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Specifically, we examine four different...
View ArticleAccounting for Macro-Finance Trends: Market Power, Intangibles, and Risk...
Real risk-free interest rates have trended down over the past 30 years. Puzzlingly in light of this decline, (1) the return on private capital has remained stable or even increased, creating an...
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