This paper proposes a new mechanism to explain resource misallocation in developing countries: the high commuting costs within cities that prevent workers from accessing formal employment. To test this mechanism, the paper combines a rich collection of microdata and exploits the opening of new...

We study job displacement in France. In the medium run, losses in firm-specific wage premium account for a substantial share of the overall cost of displacement. However, and despite the positive correlation between premium and productivity in the cross-section of firms, we find that workers are...

The "technology bubble" in the late 1990s, the financial crisis in 2007/2008, and the Eurozone crisis generated significant losses across several asset classes. The objective of this paper is to investigate risk premia factors such as size, value, momentum, carry, quality, and low volatility and...

Shortages in organs for transplantation have resulted in a renewed interest in designing incentive policies to promote organ supply. The donor‐priority rule, which grants priority for transplantation based on deceased organ donor registration status, has proven to be effective in both theory...

We consider the economy consisting of n agents and m heterogenous objects where the seller benefits v from objects. Our study focuses on the multi-object allocation problem with monetary transfers where each agent obtains at most one object (unit-demand). In the situation with arbitrary n, m and...

Following the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy may be significantly changed relative to the pre-pandemic world. One critical shift induced by the COVID- 19 pandemic is a need for physical distance (at least 6 feet apart) between workers and customers. In this study, we examine the...

In recent decades, Africa has received a large share of official development assistance compared to other regions of the world. Using AidData for 2000-13, this paper examines the effects of aid to productive sectors on manufacturing growth in Africa. Econometric results show that increased...

In recent decades, Africa has received a large share of official development assistance compared to other regions of the world. Using AidData for 2000-13, this paper examines the effects of aid to productive sectors on manufacturing growth in Africa. Econometric results show that increased...

This paper documents differences in firm size depending on whether their manager is a man or a woman and studies the aggregate implications of these gender gaps in Chile. We document that in 2007 less than a quarter of firms are managed by women and that this gap takes its largest value for...

We study the economic implications of regional favoritism, a form of distributive politics that redistributes resources geographically within countries. Using enterprise surveys from low- and middle-income countries, we document that firms located close to leaders' birthplaces grow substantially...

This paper proposes a new mechanism to explain resource misallocation in developing countries: the high commuting costs within cities that prevent workers from accessing formal employment. To test this mechanism, the paper combines a rich collection of microdata and exploits the opening of new...

We introduce a general class of simplicity standards that vary the foresight abilities required of agents in extensive-form games. Rather than planning for the entire future of a game, agents are presumed to be able to plan only for those histories they view as simple from their current...

Asymmetric effects across sectors are the distinctive features of the Covid- 19 shock. Business Formation Statistics in the United States show a reallocation of entry and exit opportunities across sectors in the initial phase of the pandemic. To explain these facts, we propose an...

This paper empirically investigates the impact of local house price booms on capital misallocation within manufacturing industries. Using the geographic variation provided by the salient Spanish housing boom (2003-2007), we show that manufacturing firms exposed to positive local house price...

The inter-temporal resource allocation efficiency of a property rights-based common-pool resource system is challenged by a cost externality when one user’s extraction raises the extraction cost for others. This paper builds a dynamic resource allocation model to illustrate the efficiency loss...

We develop a model where two players with asymmetric preferences engage in a contest game. The key novelty is the introduction of multi-dimensional rewards. We characterize the optimal prize allocation that maximizes aggregate effort. When heterogeneity in preferences is strong and the designer...

The classic Arrow-Debreu framework requires a very large number of specific securities to reach Pareto optimality. The present paper shows that financial intermediation can play an important role in maintaining a more parsimonious market framework while still obtaining Pareto optimality. In the...

We structurally estimate the firm-level frictions across prefectures in China and quantify their aggregate and distributional implications. Based on a general equilibrium model with input and output distortions and migration, we show that the firm-level frictions are less dispersed and less...

We study dynamic task allocation when providers' expertise evolves endogenously through training. We characterize optimal assignment protocols and compare them to discretionary procedures, where it is the clients who select their service providers. Our results indicate that welfare gains from...

We characterize optimal monetary policy in response to asymmetric shocks that shift demand from one sector to another, a condition arguably faced by many economies emerging from the Covid-19 crisis. We show that the asymmetry manifests itself as an endogenous cost-push shock, breaking divine...

We analyze multi-runway airport slot allocation problems during adverse weather. The number of slots assigned in any time interval is the same across feasible and non-wasteful landing schedules. The structure of the set of assigned slots is more complex than its counterpart in the single-runway...

We examine how the supply of talent affected financial development, based on a historical experiment that abruptly changed the allocation of talent in early 20th- century China. A millennium-long meritocratic institution, the imperial civil examination system had firmly linked Chinese...

The paper looks at a concept in international taxation that has gained prominence and declined more quickly than any other, namely the idea that the international allocation of taxing rights should be shifted back to "where the value is created". It focuses on the question of what we can learn...

This paper explains why a laissez-faire approach may fail to account for externalities in transforming economies, focusing on externalities associated with supply bottlenecks and adjustment costs. Bottlenecks tend to arise whenever input requirements are stochastic and the opportunity cost of...

We consider the multi-object allocation problem with monetary transfers where each agent obtains at most one object (unit-demand). We focus on allocation rules satisfying individual rationality, no subsidy, efficiency, and strategy-proofness. Extending the result of Morimoto and Serizawa (2015),...

Despite stringent dismissal restrictions in most European countries, rates of job creation and destruction are remarkably similar across European and North American labor markets. This paper shows that relative-wage compression is conducive to higher employer-initiated job turnover, and argues...

To reach climate neutrality, carbon emissions from the production of basic materials need to be significantly reduced. For governments’ support measures to be consistent with their World Trade Organization obligations, they need to be compatible with the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and...

We document that publicly listed Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less productive and profitable than publicly listed firms in which the state has no ownership stake. In particular, Chinese listed SOEs are more capital intensive and have a lower average product of capital than...

Does policy uncertainty affect productivity? Policy uncertainty creates delays as firms await new information about prices, costs and other market conditions before committing resources. Such delays can have real consequences on firms’ productivity and corporate decisions. First, we find that...

We study the effects of climate change on labor and capital reallocation across regions, sectors and firms. We use newly digitized administrative reports on extreme weather events occurred in Brazil during the last two decades and a meteorological measure of excess dryness relative to historical...

We study economies where firms acquire capital in primary markets, then, after information on idiosyncratic productivity arrives, retrade it in secondary markets. Our secondary markets incorporate bilateral trade with search, bargaining and liquidity frictions. We distinguish between full or...

To study the effects of 'double taxation' (first at the corporation level, then at the shareholder level this paper analyzes a model with a tax on all corporate distributions to equity owners and no other taxes. Contrary to the common view, the tax is shown to have no substitution effect and, in...

Portfolio allocation decisions increasingly incorporate social values. The most common of these strategies are misguided. We develop a tractable framework in which commercial and social investors compete, and identify alternative strategies for social investors that result in higher social...

This paper studies the misallocation of intermediate inputs in China’s firm-leveldata, eliminating which would increase the average industry’s gross output by 2.93%.We document evidence of pre-pay and financial frictions on intermediate inputs behindthe misallocation. We build these...

Public health implications of COVID-19 resulted in widespread business closures and job losses. Disruptions in the service and transportation sectors, acute reductions in income, and an uptick in unemployment were the outcome of pandemic mitigating procedures adopted by many governments. While...