We document international changes in bankruptcy law pertaining to personal liabilities. Implications are investigated within a theoretical model, focusing on interest rates, employment, and bankruptcy incidence. Small-firm employment rises as bankruptcy law becomes more stringent, but interest...

The automation of trading markets has given rise to a variety of regulatory concerns. We briefly review the regulatory approach used by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in dealing with automation of equity markets and the growth of proprietary trade execution systems in these markets....

The growth in automated trading systems has been explosive, and regulatory initiatives and analysis with respect to this new form of financial market structure quickly followed. We analyze the use of the definition of an ÒexchangeÓ for the purpose of classification and regulation of automated...

We investigate two interrelated questions concerning the institution of bankruptcy. First, is there a link between legislative activity and business cycle fluctuations, and if so, what is its character? Legislative activity from 1790 through 1994 is documented and matched with business cycle...

The magnitude and determinants of country and currency risk premia are of considerable importance to investors and policymakers. Unique data on peso and dollar denominated debt issued by the Mexican government is used to identify and analyze the intertemporal prices of country and currency risk,...

This paper contains an overview of personal, or consumer, bankruptcy in the United States, concentrating on empirical issues in the study of this important legal institution. Business cycle effects are reviewed, in the context of both the passage of legislation and the effect of economic...

We ask two related questions relevant to current public policy debates concerning personal bankruptcy: What are the important influences in determining bankruptcy chapter choice, and do new incentives embedded in a major legal change have their anticipated impact? Chapter choice models,...

New indicators, based on technology titles, are used to measure the impact of innovative activity on the U.S. labor market between 1909 and 1949. We find positive technology shocks raised productivity, employment, vacancies and labor turnover and lowered unemployment. Moreover, innovations in...

Are uncertainty shocks an important source of post WWII business cycle fluctuations? The evidence we present in this paper suggests they are. Using both the traditional measure of uncertainty – the stock market volatility index – and a new one - based on the number of New York Times’...

New indications of managerial innovations are created and then used to show that changes in organizational technologies are an important source of economic growth. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates that, first, in response to a positive managerial technology shock, output, productivity and...