We analyse a labour matching model with wage posting, where ?re?flecting institutional constraints - ?fi?rms cannot differentiate their wage offers within certain subsets of workers. Inter alia, we fi?nd that the presence of impersonal wage offers leads to wage compression, which propagates to...

We study the incentive to invest to improve marriage prospects, in a frictionless marriage market with non-transferable utility. Stochastic returns to investment eliminate the multiplicity of equilibria in models with deterministic returns, and a unique equilibrium exists under reasonable...

We reformulate neoclassical consumer choice by focusing on lamda, the marginal utility of money. As the opportunity cost of current expenditure, lamda is approximated by the slope of the indirect utility function of the continuation. We argue that lamda can largely supplant the role of an...

This paper investigates social infuences on attitudes to risk and offers an evolutionary explanation of risk-taking by young low-ranked males. Becker, Murphy and Werning (2005) found that individuals about to participate in a status tournament may take fair gambles even though they are risk...

In this paper, I look at the interaction between social learning and cooperative behavior. I model this using a social dilemma game with publicly observed sequential actions and asymmetric information about payoffs. I find that some informed agents in this model act, individually and without...

In his essay on public credit, Hume advances two arguments in favour of government borrowing and five against. It is interesting to cast his various arguments and claims in terms of modern models, or their variants, to see how they might be formalized - and thus potentially supported, or...

In this paper we show that the inclusion of unemployment-tenure interaction variates in Mincer wage equations is subject to serious pitfalls. These variates were designed to test whether or not the sensitivity to the business cycle of a worker’s wage varies according to her tenure. We show...

Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable mental retardation in the world today. Iodine deficiency was common in the developed world until the introduction of iodized salt in the 1920’s. The incidence of iodine deficiency is connected to low iodine levels in the soil and water. We...

This paper examines the impact of salt iodization in Switzerland in the 1920s and 1930s on schooling outcomes. Iodine deficiency in utero causes mental retardation, and correcting the deficiency is expected to increase the productivity of a population by increasing its cognitive ability. The...

This paper examines the impact of salt iodization in Switzerland in the 1920s and 1930s on occupational patterns of cohorts born after the intervention. The generalized use of iodized salt successfully combatted iodine deficiency disorders, which were previously endemic in some areas of...