Bonuses and Promotion Tournaments: Theory and Evidence
AbstractStandard models of promotion tournaments do not distinguish between wages and bonuses and thus cannot explain variation in the use of bonuses. We combine classic and market-based tournament...
View ArticleExpectations-Based Reference-Dependence and Choice Under Risk
AbstractThis article characterises the behavioural content of a model of choice under risk with reference-dependent preferences and endogenous expectations-based reference points based on the preferred...
View ArticleThe Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy: The United...
AbstractWe develop new aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) growth estimates for the USA between 1899 and 1941, and sectoral estimates at the most disaggregated level so far, 38 industries. We...
View ArticleUtility, Risk and Demand for Incomplete Insurance: Lab Experiments with...
AbstractWe play a series of incentivised laboratory games with risk-exposed co-operativised Guatemalan coffee farmers to understand the demand for index-based rainfall insurance. We estimate an...
View ArticleLow Reserve Prices in Auctions*
AbstractA standard result in auction theory is that a seller’s profit-maximising reserve price is no less than his own value for the good. In practice, however, reserve prices often appear to be less...
View ArticleNeighbourhood Ethnic Composition and Social Participation of Young People in...
AbstractWe analyse how neighbourhood ethnic diversity and segregation affect adolescents’ social participation in England. We distinguish between participation in ‘purposeful activities’—such as sports...
View ArticleThe Causal Effect of Military Conscription on Crime*
AbstractWe study the causal effect of mandatory military conscription in Sweden on the criminal behaviour of men born in the 1970s. We find that military service significantly increases post-service...
View ArticleActs of God? Religiosity and Natural Disasters Across Subnational World...
AbstractReligious beliefs potentially influence individual behaviour. But why are some societies more religious than others? One possible answer is religious coping: individuals turn to religion to...
View ArticleAsymmetric Consumption Effects of Transitory Income Shocks*
AbstractWe use the responses of a representative sample of Dutch households to survey questions that ask how much their consumption would change in response to unexpected, transitory income shocks...
View ArticleAre Donors Afraid of Core Costs? Economies of Scale and Contestability in...
AbstractWe study contestability in charity markets where non-commercial, not-for-profit providers supply a homogeneous collective good through increasing-returns-to-scale technologies. Unlike in the...
View ArticleDo Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on...
AbstractWe investigate the effects of female executives on gender-specific wage distributions and firm performance. Female leadership has a positive impact at the top of the female wage distribution...
View ArticleIs China's Pollution the Culprit for the Choking of South Korea? Evidence...
AbstractThis paper studies the impact of air pollution spillover from China to South Korea. To isolate the effects of cross-border pollution spillover from that of locally generated pollution, we...
View ArticleWage Compression within the Firm: Evidence from an Indexation Scheme
AbstractWe revisit the role of labour market institutions by showing how they affect the sharing of firm-specific rents between employers and employees. We look at an Italian wage indexation mechanism...
View ArticleSize Matters: How Over-Investments Relax Liquidity Constraints in Relational...
AbstractThe corporate finance literature documents that managers tend to over-invest in their companies. A number of theoretical contributions have aimed at explaining this stylised fact and most have...
View ArticleCan Helping the Sick Hurt the Able? Incentives, Information and Disruption in...
AbstractThe UK Jobcentre Plus reform sharpened bureaucratic incentives to help disability benefit recipients (relative to unemployment insurance recipients) into jobs. In the long run, the policy...
View ArticleBias and Negligence with Freedom of Information
AbstractWe analyse decision-making in the presence of Freedom of Information (FOI) rules. A decision-maker chooses whether to acquire costly information to inform his decision regarding a policy...
View ArticleOutward FDI and Domestic Input Distortions: Evidence from Chinese Firms
AbstractWe examine how domestic distortions affect firms’ production strategies abroad by documenting two puzzling findings using Chinese firm-level data of manufacturing firms. First, private...
View ArticleThe Demographic Transition and the Position of Women: a Marriage Market...
AbstractSecular trends in cohort size cause large marriage market imbalances due to the age gap at marriage between men and women. Positive cohort growth adversely affects women in South Asia and...
View ArticleEvaluating Vacancy Referrals and the Roles of Sanctions and Sickness Absence
AbstractJob vacancy referrals are a common active labour market policy measure. Unemployment insurance agencies may combat moral hazard by punishing refusals to apply to assigned vacancies. During...
View ArticleDoes Success Breed Success? a Quasi-Experiment on Strategic Momentum in...
AbstractWe study how agents adapt their behaviour to variations of incentives in dynamic contests. We investigate a real dynamic contest with large stakes: professional tennis matches. Situations in...
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