Publications

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…

Applying a “co-search” algorithm to Internet traffic at the SEC’s EDGAR website, we develop a novel method for identifying economically-related peer firms and for measuring their relative importance. Our results show that firms appearing in…

In several recent cases, the Delaware Chancery Court has emphasized that where a conflict of interest exists between holders of a company’s common stock and holders of its preferred stock, the standard of conduct for directors requires that they…

We examine the financial health and performance of reverse mergers (RMs) that became active on U.S. stock markets between 2001 and 2010, particularly those from China (around 85% of all foreign RMs).  As a group, RMs are early-stage…

There exists an extensive literature estimating idiosyncratic labor income processes. While a wide variety of models are estimated, GMM estimators are almost always used. We examine the validity of using likelihood based estimation in this…

The rise of big data—data that are not only large and massively multivariate but concern a dizzying array of phenomena—represents a watershed moment for the social sciences. These data have created demand for new methods that reduce/simplify the…

Our research effort, in collaboration with Stanford University, includes a series of studies examining the characteristics of successful Latino entrepreneurs, key dimensions of the Latino entrepreneurial process, and characteristics of the…

While there is some disagreement in the profession of political science about how polarized the American electorate is, there is undeniably considerable polarization in the U.S. Congress. The post-World War II period of bipartisanship on both on…