Working Papers

We develop a unified theory of delegated capital management by extending the paradigm of Berk and Green (2004) from mutual funds to alternative assets. With competitive markets and rational investors, we derive the optimal contract and account…

We develop a dynamic model of attorney-client agency combining hidden information and hidden action. The attorney observes case quality but cannot credibly communicate it; the client learns through Bayesian updating from the absence of revealed…

This paper analyzes interactions between corporate governance and law enforcement practices, focusing on cases where deterrence is weak and harmful misconduct is profitable. We show how managerial compensation contracts, including stock-based…

In a patent privateering strategy, firms sell patents to a non-practicing entity (NPE) with the expectation that the NPE sues the seller’s rivals for patent infringement. We examine whether firms under competitive pressure and facing barriers to…

We examine how patent disclosures influence technology classification decisions by patent examiners and how firms strategically tailor these disclosures to affect classification outcomes. Using a novel machine learning approach, we construct a…

We use a play-by-play dataset from the game show “Jeopardy!” to study the hot hand phenomenon, whereby people appear to exhibit “hot” states of elevated performance in domains with repeat trials. We first demonstrate that Jeopardy contestants…

We study poverty minimization via direct transfers, framing this as a statistical learning problem while retaining the information constraints faced by real-world programs. Using nationally representative household consumption surveys from 23…

Modern recommender systems rely on black-box machine learning models to predict consumer choices. However, because these models do not explicitly represent the underlying data-generating process (DGP), they often struggle to generalize beyond…

Online social networks have transformed the ways in which political mobilization messages are disseminated, raising new questions about how peer influence operates at scale. Building on the landmark 61-million-person Facebook experiment, we…

This paper develops and estimates a structural model of the labor market for accountants that integrates forward-looking lifetime occupational choices with oligopsonistic employer demand. Using longitudinal resume data covering career transitions…

Insights from psychology suggest competitive interference: when a firm advertises, consumers are less likely to think of its competitor, benefiting the advertiser by keeping it top of mind and suppressing competitor recall. We empirically…

This paper studies partisan differences in medical practice over 1999-2019. I link physicians in the Medicare claims data with campaign contributions to identify party alignment. In 1999, there are no partisan differences in medical expenditure…

We compute the cross-country transfers that result from unconventional monetary policy in the Eurozone. The ECB funds the expansion of its aggregate balance sheet mostly by issuing bank reserves and cash in core countries. The national central…

The recent elimination of the United States de minimis exemption for import tariffs has been reported to have a significant impact on ultra-fresh fashion companies such as Shein and Temu. This paper develops a game-theoretic model to investigate…

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the United States effectively “spent” about 4 percent of GDP — via reduced economic activity — to address a mortality risk of around 0.3 percent. Many experts believe that catastrophic risks from advanced A.I. over…

We study how Russian oligarch-affiliated companies operate globally and respond to sanctions. We construct a dataset tracking 70 companies, 1,800 international subsidiaries, and their institutional investors between 2009 and 2023. These companies…

Firms’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies have received significant scrutiny in recent years, including their efficacy and role in long-term value creation. We provide new evidence on these issues by studying what is arguably the…

Obesity and excess weight are major global health challenges. A number of technological solutions, including mobile apps, have been developed to help people lose weight. Many such applications provide access to human coaches who help consumers…

Responding to economic and environmental pressures, a growing number of companies seek to repurpose products (assets) that retain functional capacity beyond their initial first life. This paper examines a generic valuation model for used capacity…