This thesis consists of three studies of labor markets where differences in talent are associated with very large differences in income. The unifying theoretical feature is the view that the analysis of such labor markets should take into account the scarcity of jobs, which is a natural...

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine the impact of tax policy of firm behavior. The first chapter uses new well-level production data on California oil wells and after-tax producer prices to estimate how temporary taxes affect oil production decisions. Theory suggests that...

This dissertation consists of three separate essays. In the first essay, privatization is found to improve bank performance by both better monitoring of existing firms, and improved selection of new bank clients. Data on firms borrowing from government-owned banks, and firms borrowing from a...

This dissertation consists of three essays studying the impacts of income and wage taxes. Chapter One examines how income tax changes differentially affect the pre-tax wages of different industries based on the injury and fatality rates of those industries. This chapter recognizes that...

This thesis examines the workings of insurance markets. The first two papers examine the effect of government tax and regulatory policy in markets for supplementary health insurance. The third paper presents new evidence of the importance of adverse selection in insurance markets. The first...