This paper examines various implications of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), namely Customs Unions (CUs) and Free Trade Areas (FTAs), in the context of a multi-country general equilibrium model based on comparative advantage considerations. We calibrate the model to represent countries with...

There has been growing debate about whether bilateral trade agreements are damaging multilateral efforts to eliminate barriers to international trade. This paper develops a model in which trading blocs always charge optimal tariffs and make trade agreements based on strategic considerations. We...

This dissertation includes three essays using the methodology of experimental economics in order to analyze three separate topics: (1) rate of return dominance, (2) the effect of non-monetary punishment in the voluntary contribution mechanism, and (3) futures contracts in multi-period asset...

This thesis includes three essays that examine issues on two different topics: (1) trading behavior in financial markets, and (2) economic growth. In Essay 1, we report the results of an experiment designed to study the role of speculation in the formation of bubbles and crashes in laboratory...

We conduct a field experiment to measure cooperation among groups of recreational fishermen at a privately owned fishing facility. The parameters are chosen so that group earnings are greater when group members catch fewer fish, as in the Voluntary Contributions Mechanism (VCM). In a manner...

We report a framed field experiment, in which we study the effectiveness of punishment and reward in sustaining cooperation in a social dilemma. Punishments tend to be directed at non-cooperators and rewards are assigned by those who are relatively cooperative. In contrast to the results...

The possibility that asset markets could be strategically manipulated by large informed traders has fascinated social scientists and market observers for years. There is a well-known story of minions of Nathan Rothschild, who was thought to have the fastest carrier pigeons in London, selling...

In the last ten years theory (e.g., Fudenberg and Levine, 1998) and empirical data fitting have provided many ideas about how equilibria arise in games or markets. This short chapter describes a very general approach to learning in games: "experience-weighted attraction" (EWA) learning. This...

The proposed 2008 TARP auction was intended to facilitate rapid purchases by the U.S. department of Treasury of a wide array of mortgage-backed securities in order to remove these “toxic assets” from the portfolios of financially stressed banks. The Treasury had selected a Reference Price...