Recent data advances have opened exciting new avenues for analyzing the political economy of foreign aid. Recent papers have looked at the social, environmental or welfare implications of aid. This paper, however, combines geo-referenced data on foreign aid with a similarly coded dataset of FDI...

The literature suggests that voluntary IPO lockups (thereafter lockups) have both roles as a commitment device to control moral hazard and a signaling device to minimize asymmetric information. Using a hand collected data on lockups in China from 2006 to 2012, this paper disentangles the two...

This paper provides a nonmathematical introduction to the US economy's information processing ratio (R/C). This measure derived by Parker (2016-2019), was utilized to study the emergence of flash crashes, the evolution of the business cycle, and to provide an important new link connecting the...

A new method of financing known as equity crowdfunding, propelled by internet technology and deregulation, has emerged rapidly as a promising new source of startup financing and a window into early-stage investment process. By studying companies raising funds on one of the largest US equity...

We analyze a competitive labor market in which workers signal their productivities through education à la Spence (1973), and firms have the option of auditing to learn workers' productivities. Audits are costly and non–contractible. We characterize the trade–offs between signaling by...

In a large online market, buyers were given the opportunity to signal their relative preferences over price and quality—first experimentally, then later as the default experience in the market. The possibility of signaling caused substantial sorting by sellers to buyers of the right...

A large body of research shows that tastes can reliably signal social group membership. Because standards of good taste vary between groups, the costs of acquiring them prevents dishonest signaling by outsiders. However, little research has examined signals of good taste within social groups,...

In early May 2018, The Wall Street Journal asked professional forecasters to predict when the next recession would begin. Nearly 6 in 10 answered that the next recession will begin sometime in 2020. If so, the current business expansion will have eclipsed the 1991-2001 expansion as the longest...

Assets are reallocated less efficiently through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) between private firms compared to the public ones. I develop a theoretical framework to explain how information imperfections inhibit efficiency gains through private acquisitions. Two startups of different qualities...

Entrepreneurs may differentiate their ventures and attract investments by advertising that their firm produces positive externalities for society. Such signaling of entrepreneurs' trustworthiness may be a prevalent practice in these “impact investment'' opportunities. This paper investigates...