Barron and Erev (2003) report experimental results revealing differences in risk attitude in small feedback-based problems as opposed to conventional description-based problems. This note shows that theoretical predictions drawing on a simple decision rule, known as the heuristic of relative...

This paper sets up a model to inquire into whether the rise and fall in barter transactions in Russia and other CIS countries during the 1990’s was an involuntary decision resulting from credit rationing or the consequence of firms’ optimal choice. We find that the transmission mechanism of...

Czech returns to education are estimated using 2002 data on hourly wages of salaried employees. The return to an additional year of schooling is close to 10% – that is relatively high given the level of economic development and average schooling level. Particularly large is the...

We present a model of bank passivity and regulatory failure. Banks with low equity positions have more incentives to be passive in liquidating bad loans. We show that they tend to hide distress from regulatory authorities and are ready to offer a higher rate of interest in order to attract...

We study a learning process in which subjects extrapolate from their experience of similar past strategic situations to the current decision problem. When applied to coordination games, this learning process leads to contagion of behavior from problems with extreme payoffs and unique equilibria...

This study explores the significance of firm-specific, institutional, and macroeconomic factors in explaining variation in leverage using a sample of firms from nine Eastern European countries. Country-specific factors are the main determinants of variation in leverage for small unlisted...

We study the conditions under which it is rational for a representative entrepreneur to start a nonprofit firm. Taking as point of departure a model of entrepreneurial choice proposed by Glaeser and Shleifer (2001), we analyze consequences of weak enforcement of the non-distribution constraint...

This paper analyzes tying and bundling as an entry deterrence tool. It shows that a multi-product firm can defend its monopoly position in one market via tying even when it does not have market power in another market. This is shown on a model with two complementary goods, each of which is...

In their recent paper, Boldrin and Montes (2005) analyze the “return on human capital investment” theory and show that if borrowing for education is not possible, then a combined public education and pension system that uses lump sum taxes and transfers can replicate the first-best...

Two faces of R&D (innovation and learning) and technology spillovers from FDI (foreign direct investment) on a firm's productivity growth are examined in this paper. Using firm-level panel data on Czech manufacturing firms between 1995 and 1998, I find that: First, the learning effect of R&D is...