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作者:Gennaioli, Nicola; Shleifer, Andrei
作者单位:Stockholm University; Harvard University
摘要:We present a model of lawmaking by appellate courts in which judges influenced by policy preferences can distinguish precedents at some cost. We find a cost and a benefit of diversity of judicial views. Policy-motivated judges distort the law away from efficiency, but diversity of judicial views also fosters legal evolution and increases the law's precision. We call our central finding the Cardozo theorem: even when judges are motivated by personal agendas, legal evolution is, on average, bene...
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作者:Chandra, Amitabh; Staiger, Douglas O.
作者单位:Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Dartmouth College
摘要:A large literature in medicine documents variation across areas in the use of surgical treatments that is unrelated to outcomes. Observers of this phenomenon have invoked flat of the curve medicine to explain it and have advocated for reductions in spending in high- use areas. In contrast, we develop a simple Roy model of patient treatment choice with productivity spillovers that can generate the empirical facts. Our model predicts that high- use areas will have higher returns to surgery, bett...
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作者:Aguiar, Mark; Gopinath, Gita
作者单位:University of Rochester; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要:Emerging market business cycles exhibit strongly countercyclical current accounts, consumption volatility that exceeds income volatility, and sudden stops in capital inflows. These features contrast with developed small open economies. Nevertheless, we show that a standard model characterizes both types of markets. Motivated by the frequent policy regime switches observed in emerging markets, our premise is that these economies are subject to substantial volatility in trend growth. Our method...
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作者:Oberholzer-Gee, Felix; Strumpf, Koleman
作者单位:Harvard University; University of Kansas
摘要:For industries ranging from software to pharmaceuticals and entertainment, there is an intense debate about the appropriate level of protection for intellectual property. The Internet provides a natural crucible to assess the implications of reduced protection because it drastically lowers the cost of copying information. In this paper, we analyze whether file sharing has reduced the legal sales of music. While this question is receiving considerable attention in academia, industry, and Congre...