Working Papers

Recent work emphasizes the primacy of differences in countries colonially-bequeathed property rights and legal systems for explaining differences in their subsequent economic development. Barbados and Jamaica provide a striking counter example to…

This research aims to provide insights into the determinants of channel profitability and the relative power in the channel by considering consumer demand and the interactions between manufacturers and retailers in an equilibrium model. We use…

We study how tape drive producers respond to the almost continuous emergence of new drive formats across the technology’s history. The analysis characterizes the technological formats of tape drives according to their degree of contrast (…

In two longitudinal experiments, conducted both in the field and lab, we investigated the recollection of mixed emotions. Results demonstrated that the intensity of mixed emotions is generally underestimated at the time of recall, an effect that…

Based on longitudinal research of Intel’s strategic evolution and grounded theorizing efforts, I examine the strategic consequences of the substantive concept of coevolutionary lock-in in light of a model of organizational strategy-making that…

This paper investigates the extent to which the economic challenges faced by symphony orchestras in the United States reflect collectively bargained wage increases and work rules. Since the late 1960s, collective bargaining agreements have…

We consider a cross-calibration test of predictions by multiple potential experts in a stochastic environment. This test checks whether each expert is calibrated conditional on the predictions made by other experts. We show that this test is good…

This research examines how a focus on time versus money can lead to two distinct mindsets that impact consumers’ willingness to donate to charitable causes. The results of three experiments, conducted both in the lab and in the field, reveal that…

Sociologists and other social scientists have long recognized that certain economic transactions involve more than a simple trade of goods or services for money. A long-standing theme in economic anthropology and sociology emphasizes the symbolic…

What types of products are preferred when the purchase is immediate versus off in the distant future? Three experiments address this question by examining the influence of temporal perspective on evaluations of regulatory-framed products. The…

This paper analyses the incentives that shaped Hindu and Muslim interaction in India’s towns from the rise of Islam to the rise of European intervention in the 17th century; it argues that differences in the degree to which medieval Hindus and…

In 2007 and 2008, the price of oil skyrocketed, hitting historic highs. The corresponding increase in gas price was felt sharply in the United States by ordinary people, industries, the military and the government. Citizens were spending more and…

Prices for goods such as blades for razors, ink for printers and concessions at movies are often set well above cost. This paper empirically analyzes concession sales data from a chain of Spanish theaters to demonstrate that high prices on…

In this review of the personnel economics literature, we introduce key topics of personnel economics, focus on some relatively new findings that have emerged since prior reviews of some or all of the personnel economics literature, and suggest…

This paper explores the quantity-based price discrimination of reward programs by analyzing estimates from a dynamic structural model of consumer choice applied to a reward program for a golf course. The expected value of participating in the…

We propose a model in which an optimal dynamic financing contract for a cash-constrained entrepreneur is a credit line with a growing credit limit. This simple contract, which resembles those used in practice, presents a good benchmark to…

We investigate the short and long run effects of prices and software availability on the category-level diffusion of 32/64 bit video-game consoles in the US. We adopt an estimation framework that allows for a flexible…

This study examines how executives’ and lower-level employees’ option exercise behavior affects firms’ stock option grant cost estimates. Prior research suggests that option grant cost estimates are not materially different when calculated a…

We document that the observed persistence amongst the worst performing actively managed mutual funds is attributable to funds that have performed poorly both in the current and prior year. We demonstrate that this persistence results from an…

This paper develops a new nonparametric series estimator for the average treatment effect for the case with unconfounded treatment assignment, that is, where selection for treatment is on observables. The new estimator is efficient. In addition…