Risk of Life Insurers: Recent Trends and Transmission Mechanisms -- by Ralph...
We summarize recent trends in risk exposure for U.S. life insurers from variable annuities, shadow insurance, securities lending, and derivatives. We discuss how these sources of risk could be...
View ArticleOptimal Multistage Adjudication -- by Louis Kaplow
In many settings, there are preliminary or interim decision points at which legal cases may be terminated: e.g., motions to dismiss and for summary judgment in U.S. civil litigation, grand jury...
View ArticleGradual Portfolio Adjustment: Implications for Global Equity Portfolios and...
Modern open economy macro models assume the continuous adjustment of international portfolio allocation. We introduce gradual portfolio adjustment into a global equity market model. Our approach...
View ArticleUsing Kinked Budget Sets to Estimate Extensive Margin Responses: Evidence...
We develop a method for estimating the effect of a kinked budget set on workers' employment decisions, and we use it to estimate the impact of the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI)...
View ArticleEconomies of Density in E-Commerce: A Study of Amazon's Fulfillment Center...
We examine the economies of density associated with the expansion of Amazon's distribution network from 2006 to 2018. We demonstrate that, in placing a fulfillment center in a new state, Amazon faces a...
View ArticleMarket Power and Price Discrimination in the U.S. Market for Higher Education...
The main purpose of this paper is to estimate an equilibrium model of private and public school competition that can generate realistic pricing patterns for private universities in the U.S. We show...
View ArticleFinancial Integration and Liquidity Crises -- by Fabio Castiglionesi, Fabio...
The paper analyzes the effects of financial integration on the stability of the banking system. Financial integration allows banks in different regions to smooth local liquidity shocks by borrowing and...
View ArticleHousehold Matters: Revisiting the Returns to Capital among Female...
Several field experiments find positive returns to grants for male and not female micro-entrepreneurs. But, these analyses largely overlook that male and female micro-entrepreneurs often belong to the...
View ArticleConsumption Inequality and the Frequency of Purchases -- by Olivier Coibion,...
We document a decline in the frequency of shopping trips in the U.S. since 1980 and consider its implications for the measurement of consumption inequality. A decline in shopping frequency as...
View ArticleAll the President's Friends: Political Access and Firm Value -- by Jeffrey R....
Using novel data on White House visitors from 2009 through 2015, we find that corporate executives' meetings with key policymakers are associated with positive abnormal stock returns. We also find...
View ArticleHarnessing Policy Complementarities to Conserve Energy: Evidence from a...
The literature has shown the power of social norms to promote residential energy conservation, particularly among high usage users. This study uses a natural field experiment with nearly 200,000 US...
View ArticleTurbulence, Firm Decentralization and Growth in Bad Times -- by Philippe...
What is the optimal form of firm organization during "bad times"? Using two large micro datasets on firm decentralization from US administrative data and 10 OECD countries, we find that firms that...
View ArticleCost of Service Regulation in U.S. Health Care: Minimum Medical Loss Ratios...
In health insurance markets, an insurer's Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) is the share of premiums spent on medical claims. As part of the goal of reducing the cost of health care coverage, the Affordable...
View ArticleSatisfaction Guaranteed: When Moral Hazard meets Moral Preferences -- by...
Theorists and policy analysts have convincingly argued that greater trust makes a more efficient society by eliminating costly contracts or expensive reputations. Concurrently, experiments suggest that...
View ArticleSupervisors and Performance Management Systems -- by Anders Frederiksen, Lisa...
Supervisors occupy central roles in production and performance monitoring. We study how heterogeneity in performance evaluations across supervisors affects employee and supervisor careers and firm...
View ArticleIndividuals and Organizations as Sources of State Effectiveness, and...
How much of the variation in state effectiveness is due to the individuals and organizations responsible for implementing policy? We investigate this question and its implications for policy design in...
View ArticleA Strategy for Evaluating the Opportunity Cost of Time Estimates from New...
Information frictions imply it is reasonable to expect the same commodity, in a given location, to sell for different prices at the same time. Aguiar and Hurst (AH) [2007] demonstrate how the search...
View ArticleDid Inequality in Farm Sizes Lead to Suppression of Banking and Credit in the...
This paper creates a new database that covers all banks in the United States in the census years between 1870 and 1900 to test the interaction between inequality and financial development when the...
View ArticleHuman Capital and Shocks: Evidence on Education, Health and Nutrition -- by...
Human capital, including health and nutrition, has played a key role in the literature on poverty traps. Economic shocks that affect human capital during early life are thought to translate into...
View ArticleAverting Catastrophes that Kill -- by Ian Martin, Robert S. Pindyck
We face a variety of potential catastrophes; nuclear or bioterrorism, a climate catastrophe, and a "mega-virus" are examples. Martin and Pindyck (AER 2015) showed that decisions to avert such...
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