Contrary to signaling models' central predictions, changes in profits do not empirically follow changes in dividends, and firms with the least need to signal pay the bulk of dividends. We show both theoretically and empirically that dividends signal safer, rather than higher, future profits....

This paper demonstrates that the Modigliani Miller Theorem on capital structure does in general not apply to banks when faced with endogenous liquidity risk in form of bank runs and asset illiquidity. The Modigliani Miller Theorem states that under certain assumptions, firms with different...

For centuries, Jews in Europe have specialized in financial services. At the same time, they have been the victims of historical antisemitism on the part of the Christian majority. We find that present-day financial development is lower in German counties where historical antisemitism was...

We study how individuals repay their debt using linked data on multiple credit cards. Repayments are not allocated to the higher interest rate card, which would minimize the cost of borrowing. Moreover, the degree of misallocation is invariant to the economic stakes, which is inconsistent with...

Weather conditions in Colombia vary greatly throughout the territory and therefore the location of electricity generating plants plays a key role in their bid pricing strategies. To account for these location-specific pricing strategies this paper estimates a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) with...

Following Wooldridge (2014), we discuss and implement in Stata an efficient maximum likelihood approach to the estimation of corrected standard errors of two-stage optimization models. Specifically, we compare the robustness and efficiency of this estimate using different non-linear routines...

In this paper, I develop an integrated approach to collective models and matching models of the marriage market. In the collective framework, both household formation and the intra-household allocation of bargaining power are taken as given. This is no longer the case in the present...

A growing number of policies and programs aim to increase investment in energy efficiency, because conventional wisdom suggests that people fail to take-up these investments even though they have positive private returns and generate environmental benefits. Many explanations for this energy...

Many developing countries have high pollution despite strict environmental standards, suggesting gaps in regulatory enforcement. In collaboration with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), in India, we increased the rate of inspection for a random group of polluting industrial plants and...

Spanish Abstract:Explorar los factores crediticios en materia de vivienda nueva NO VIS, permite diversas miradas a las dinámicas sociales que faciliten acceder o no a ella. En este sentido, determinar los efectos del crédito hipotecario sobre el precio de la vivienda nueva no VIS en la ciudad...