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作者：McLaren, J
作者单位：University of Virginia; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：This paper presents an interpretation of rising regionalism in world trade as a coordination failure, based on (i) sector-specific sunk costs in production, and (ii) friction in trade negotiation. Given these elements, if a regional trade bloc is expected to form, private agents will make investments that will make bloc member countries more specialized toward each other, but bloc and nonbloc countries mutually less specialized. This diminishes the ex post demand for multilateral free trade. T...
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作者：Bresnahan, TF; Brynjolfsson, E; Hitt, LM
作者单位：Stanford University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Pennsylvania
摘要：We investigate the hypothesis that the combination of three related innovations-1) information technology (IT), 2) complementary workplace reorganization, and 3) new products and services-constitute a significant skill-biased technical change affecting labor demand in the United States. Using detailed firm-level data, we find evidence of complementarities among all three of these innovations in factor demand and productivity regressions. In addition, firms that adopt these innovations tend to ...
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作者：Bénabou, R; Tirole, J
作者单位：Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：We analyze the value placed by rational agents on self-confidence, and the strategies employed in its pursuit. Confidence in one's abilities generally enhances motivation, making it a valuable asset for individuals with imperfect willpower. This demand for self-serving beliefs (which can also arise from hedonic or signaling motives) must be weighed against the risks of overconfidence. On the supply side, we develop a model of self-deception through endogenous memory that reconciles the motivat...
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作者：Frankel, J; Rose, A
作者单位：Harvard University
摘要：To quantify the implications of common currencies for trade and income, we use data for over 200 countries and dependencies. In our two-stage approach, estimates at the first stage suggest that belonging to a currency union/board triples trade with other currency union members. Moreover, there is no evidence of trade diversion. Our estimates at the second stage suggest that every 1 percent increase in a country's overall trade (relative to GDP) raises income per capita by at least one-third of...
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作者：Bertrand, M; Kramarz, F
作者单位：National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Chicago; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris
摘要：Are product market and entry regulation key sources of low employment growth in many European countries? We investigate this question in the context of the French retail trade industry. Since 1974, approval by regional zoning boards has been required for the creation or extension of any large retain store in France. We exploit a unique database that provides time- and region-specific variation in boards' approval decisions. We show that stronger deterrence of entry by the boards increased reta...
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作者：Mullainathan, S
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：In order to investigate the impact of limited memory on human behavior, I develop a model of memory grounded in psychological and biological research. I assume that people take their memories as accurate and use them to make inferences. The resulting model predicts both over- and underreaction but provides enough structure to predict when each effect dominates. I then use this framework to study the consumption decision. The results match empirical work on consumption predictability as well as...
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作者：Gale, D; Vives, X
作者单位：New York University; INSEAD Business School; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Institut d'Analisi Economica (IAE)
摘要：Central bank policy suffers from time inconsistency when facing a banking crisis: a bailout is optimal ex post, but ex ante it should be limited to control moral hazard. Dollarization provides a credible commitment not to help at the cost of not helping even when it would be ex ante optimal to do so. Dollarization is good when the costs of establishing a reputation for the central bank are high, monitoring effort by the banker is important in improving returns, and when the cost of liquidating...
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作者：Mankiw, NG; Reis, R
作者单位：Harvard University
摘要：This paper examines a model of dynamic price adjustment based on the assumption that information disseminates slowly throughout the population. Compared with the commonly used sticky-price model, this sticky-information model displays three related properties that are more consistent with accepted views about the effects of monetary policy. First, disinflations are always contractionary (although announced disinflations are less contractionary than surprise ones). Second, monetary policy shock...
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作者：Baker, G; Gibbons, R; Murphy, KJ
作者单位：Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Southern California
摘要：Relational contracts-informal agreements sustained by the value of future relationships-are prevalent within and between firms. We develop repeated-game models showing why and how relational contracts within firms (vertical integration) differ from those between (nonintegration). We show that integration affects the parties' temptations to renege on a given relational contract, and hence affects the best relational contract the parties can sustain. In this sense, the integration decision can b...
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作者：Charness, G; Rabin, M
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要：Departures from self-interest in economic experiments have recently inspired models of social preferences. We design a range of simple experimental games that test these theories more directly than existing experiments. Our experiments show that subjects are more concerned with increasing social welfare-sacrificing to increase the payoffs for all recipients, especially low-payoff recipients-than with reducing differences in payoffs (as supposed in recent models). Subjects are also motivated by...
