This paper presents and critically discusses a vast array of evidence on the determinants of mortality reductions in developing countries. We argue that increases in life expectancy between 1960 and 2000 were largely independent from improvements in income and nutrition. We then characterize the...

More than eleven years after the end of hyperinflation in Brazil, domestic bond markets have been unable to lengthen the average maturity of both public and private bonds. This paper shows that the lengthening is theoretically and practically (we analyzed the experiences of Israel, Mexico and...

Corporate Boards usually come in two different shapes: unitary and dual. In the former, a single board/principal is responsible for monitoring and establishing performance targets; in the latter, these tasks are split between two boards/principals. This paper compares these two arrangements in...

Relationships are a valuable technology to produce loans. (Berger and Udell [1995], Petersen and Rajan [1994], Aoki and Dinç [2002]). While there are convincing theories in which relationships solve hidden action or hidden information problems, there is very little empirical corroboration of...

This paper tackles the puzzle of Ricardo’s stubborn commitment to a labor theory of value that he himself saw as no more than an approximation to reality and which was heavily opposed by Malthus, his most respected contemporary. We show it is wrong to think that the theory had no analytical...

While the literature has focused on relationships as a technology for solving hidden information problems in credit markets, hidden action has been very little explored as an explanation for the existence of relational lending. In this paper, we propose a theory in which relationships are driven...

In this note, I consider a setting in which an agent can exert costly unobservable effort towards two activities and is, a priori, uncertain about its ability to perform them. A (non-contractible) ability enhancing investment can be performed. The lack of commitment from a Principal concerned...

O presente estudo calcula as elasticidades da pobreza em relação ao crescimento econômico e à desigualdade de renda para os estados e municípios brasileiros através de um método de estimação não paramétrico, visto em Horowitz (2012) e Ai & Chen (2003), e usado por Figueiredo e Laurini...