This dissertation consists of four chapters on empirical and experimental macroeconomics and other experimental topics. Chapter 1 uses a laboratory experiment to test the predictions of a dynamic global game designed to capture the role of information and coordination in speculative attacks. The...

This thesis studies the macroeconomics of incomplete markets. Chapter 1 studies the effects of capital taxation in a dynamic heterogeneous-agent economy with uninsurable entrepreneurial risk. Unlike either the complete-markets paradigm or Bewley-type models where idiosyncratic risk impacts only...

This thesis explores the link between human capital accumulation and the functioning of marriage markets. The first chapter studies the effect of marriage market conditions on pre-marital investment. After showing how a change in the sex ratio can alter incentives for investments, I test this...

This thesis is a collection of three essays on mechanism design. In Chapter 1, we consider a general Informed Principal Problem in the context of procurement. Both the potential suppliers and the buyer hold some private information: each supplier knows his cost of production, the buyer knows how...

This thesis is a collection of essays that uses theoretical and experimental methods to explore institutional persistence, contract structure, and authority. Chapter One studies the informational and efficiency properties of institutions that form to reduce moral hazard. While in the short run...

This dissertation consists of three essays on international trade and investment. In the first essay, I study how cross-country differences in labor market institutions shape the pattern of international trade with a focus on workers' skill acquisition. I develop an open-economy model in which...

This thesis consists of three separate essays related to international economics and labor markets. The first essay, with Francisco Gallego, looks at sudden stops, a main feature of developing countries in the last decades, and their effects on these countries. Using sector-level data on job...

This dissertation consists of three papers that explore the links between corporate finance and corporate pension policy. The first chapter exploits the funding rules for defined benefit pension plans in order to identify the dependence of corporate investment on internal financial resources....

This dissertation is a collection of three essays exploring the impact of incentives on participation in public education and health programs. The first two essays analyze the demand for Special Education (a program for disabled children) in the U.S., while the third essay explores the demand...

This dissertation consists of three essays in empirical labor and health economics. The first chapter examines how the amount of time devoted to a leisure activity varies in response to temporary changes in the price of that activity. Specifically, I estimate the effect of changes in expected...