This paper explores a global game model of information-based financial contagion. By revealing information on a common fundamental factor and thereby affecting the behavior of creditors, the failure of a single firm can trigger the failure of another firm. The model provides a unique equilibrium...

Survey data suggest that cropsharing contracts exhibit a much higher degree of uniformity than is warranted by economic fundamentals. We propose a dynamic model of contract choice to explain this phenomenon. Landowners and tenants recontract periodically, taking into account expected returns as...

Region-specific norms of behavior are a widespread phenomenon. In the case of medical practice, numerous studies have found that geographic location exerts an inordinate influence on the choice of treatments and procedures. This paper shows how the presence of social influence on treatment...

We analyze the impact of classroom peers’ ability (measured by their individual fixed effects) on student achievement for all Florida public school students in grades 3–10 over a 6-year period. We control for both student and teacher fixed effects, thereby alleviating biases due to...

Social norms are customary or ideal forms of behavior to which individuals in a group try to conform. From an analytical standpoint, the key feature of social norms is that they induce a positive feedback loop between individual and group behavior: the more widely that a norm is practiced by...