Publications

Increasingly, individuals are in charge of their own financial security and are confronted with ever more complex financial instruments. However, there is evidence that many individuals are not well-equipped to make sound saving decisions. This…

The authors study the sources of match-specific value at large U.S. law firms by analyzing how graduates of law schools group into law firms. They measure the degree to which lawyers from certain schools concentrate within certain firms and then…

This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on how golden parachute payments influence CEO incentives to pursue mergers and acquisitions. It reviews the evidence of:

• Shareholder reaction to the…

This paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the degree to which incumbents scare off challengers with previous officeholder experience. The estimates indicate a surprisingly small amount of scare-off, at least in cases where the…

We examine the economic determinants of short-sale supply, and its consequences for future stock returns.  Lendable supply increases with expected borrowing costs and decreases with financial statement constructs that indicate overvaluation…

We study equilibria of dynamic over-the-counter markets in which agents are distinguished by their preferences and information. Over time, agents are privately informed by bids and offers. Investors differ with respect to information…

We study whether information leads voters and donors to “waste” fewer votes and donations on candidates who do not finish in first or second place. Examining U.S. primary elections featuring more than two candidates, we compare voting and…

What fundamental forces account for procedural change in majoritarian voting institutions? I address this question by defining majoritarianism as a variable with two attributes: a numeric component that sets a threshold of assent among decision-…

A main objective of Behavioral Decision Theory (BDT) research — demonstrating that economic theory often fails as a description of decision making as well as gaining insights into systematic influences on judgment and choice — has…

We consider a non-stationary variant of a sequential stochastic optimization problem, in which the underlying cost functions may change along the horizon. We propose a measure, termed variation budget, that controls the extent of said change, and…

Organizational ecology refers to a sociologically oriented research program on organizations. It involves the empirical study of populations of organizations and a theoretical emphasis on processes of selective replacement of relatively inert…

A historical perspective on polarization helps us better understand both its causes and consequences. We agree with the excellent points Nolan McCarty and Frances Lee have already made in their posts — that Congress is as polarized now as it ever…

Marketers often seek to minimize or eliminate interruptions when they deliver persuasive messages in an attempt to increase consumers’ attention and processing of those messages. However, in five studies conducted across different experimental…

We investigate the causal effect of position in search engine advertising listings on outcomes such as click-through rates and sales orders. Because positions are determined through an auction, there are significant selection issues in measuring…

Do police treat religious-based protest events differently than secular ones? Drawing on data from more than 15,000 protest events in the United States (1960 to 1995) and using quantitative methods, we find that law enforcement agents were less…

Movie exhibitors currently face two forces vying for the limited footprint of their properties. Recent advances have enabled exhibitors to satisfy consumers’ long-standing desire for increasingly larger screens. On the other hand, digital…

LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate: a measure of the interest rate at which large banks can borrow from one another on an unsecured basis. LIBOR is often used as a benchmark rate- meaning that the interest rates that consumers and…