We exploit the substantial diversity in financial development of the 'single-market' EU- 15 economies to test whether more developed financial systems are better at tackling asymmetric information proxied by firm age and size. Comparing the growth effect of financial development across firms of...

This paper examines the gender gaps in employment and wages among top- and lowerlevel managerial employees in a recent sample of Czech firms. Unlike the existing analyses of managerial gender pay gaps, we acknowledge the adverse consequences of the low and uneven representation of women for the...

The system of Unemployment Insurance (UI) financing in the US draws its funds from a payroll tax on employers and varies the tax rate according to the individual employer's layoff history. There exists extensive evidence on the effect of this so-called experience rated tax on layoff decisions....

Do women perform worse than equally able men in stressful competitive settings? We ask this question for competitions with a high payoff--admissions to tuition-free selective universities. With data on an entire cohort of Czech students graduating from secondary schools and applying to...

Does foreign ownership improve corporate performance, or do foreign firms merely select more productive targets for takeover? Do workers benefit from foreign acquisitions? We answer these questions by comparing the before/after change in several performance indicators of Czech firms subject to...