Showing 1 - 10 of 37
This paper studies the barriers to the diffusion of development across countries over the very long-run. We find that … culturally transmitted characteristics - can affect income differences by creating barriers to the diffusion of innovations, even … 'barriers' interpretation. …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005666850
This paper examines the effect of U.S. food aid on conflict in recipient countries. To establish a causal relationship, we exploit time variation in food aid caused by fluctuations in U.S. wheat production together with cross-sectional variation in a country's tendency to receive any food aid...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011084708
In this Paper, we provide a novel rationale for credit ratings. The rationale that we propose is that credit ratings can serve as a coordinating mechanism in situations where multiple equilibria can obtain. We show that credit ratings provide a ‘focal point’ for firms and their investors. We...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005504472
This paper endogenizes coordination problems in organizations by allowing for both ex ante coordination of activities …, using rules and task guidelines, and ex post coordination, using communication and broad job assignments. It shows that: (i … coordination. In particular, specialization is often non-monotonic in the importance of coordination. (ii) Organizations exhibit …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005497860
This paper reports results from an experiment studying how fines, leniency programs and reward schemes for whistleblowers affect cartel formation and prices. Antitrust without leniency reduces cartel formation, but increases cartel prices: subjects use costly fines as (altruistic) punishments....
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10004976790
The seminal work by Grossman and Hart (1986) made the study of firm boundaries susceptible to formal economic analysis, and illuminated an important role for markets in providing incentives. In this essay, I discuss some new directions that the literature has taken since. As a central challenge,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011083406
, which must be adapted to a privately observed shock and coordinated with other tasks. Coordination requires that agents pay … leadership naturally arise as a response to organizational trade-offs between coordination and adaptation. At the optimum, all …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011084079
This paper proposes a simple macroeconomic model with staggered investment decisions. The expected return from investing depends on demand expectations, which are pinned down by fundamentals and history. Owing to an aggregate demand externality, investment subsidies can improve welfare in this...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011084252
What is common to the following situations: incentivizing collective action in the presence of social preferences, monopoly pricing when consumers are loss averse, arms races when players are privately informed of their armament costs? We present a simple formalism, called X-games, which unifies...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011084519
We report experimental results on exclusive dealing inspired by the literature on "naked exclusion.'' Our key findings are: First, exclusion of a more efficient entrant is a widespread phenomenon in lab markets. Second, allowing incumbents to discriminate between buyers increases exclusion rates...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10004991543