Impersonal exchange is the hallmark of an advanced society. One key institution for impersonal exchange is money, which economic theory considers just a primitive arrangement for monitoring past conduct in society. If so, then a public record of past actions - or memory - supersedes the function...

We use a modified version of the Lagos-Wright model to introduce an essential role for banks. Due to preference shocks, agents have excess demand for or supply of money balances. Banks arise to reallocate excess cash by taking deposits from sellers and making loans to buyers. We consider two...

In this preliminary version we consider different types of ex-ante heterogeneity (production cost, preferences, market access, etc.) in a Lagos-Wright (2003) framework. Such heterogeneity generates equilibrium inequality in nominal wealth, or money holdings. We have two basic objectives. First,...

I study a search theoretic model with pairwise meetings where dealers arise endogenously. The extent of intermediation depends on its cost, trade frictions, and the dealers' ability to negociate favorable terms of trade. Under Nash bargaining, there is a unique equilibrium where dealers buy and...

We endogenize the trade mechanism in a search economy with many homogenous sellers and many heterogeneous buyers of unobservable type. We study how heterogeneity and the traders' continuation values -- which are endogenous -- influence the sellers' choice of trade mechanism. Sellers trade off...

We study the individual behavior of students and workers in an experiment where they repeatedly face the same cooperative task. The data show that clerical workers differ from college students in overall cooperation rates, strategy adoption and use of punishment opportunities. Students cooperate...

We study equilibrium prices and trade volume in a market with several identical buyers and a seller who commits to an inventory and then offers goods sequentially. Prices are determined by a strategic costly bargaining process with a random sequence of proponents. A unique subgame perfect...