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作者:Bonfatti, Roberto; O'Rourke, Kevin Hjortshoj
作者单位:University of Nottingham
摘要:Theories of war predict that the leader may launch a war on a follower who is catching up, since the follower cannot commit to not use their increased power in the future. But it was Japan who attacked the West in 1941: both leaders and followers start wars. Similarly, many have argued that trade makes war less likely, yet the First World War erupted at a time of unprecedented globalisation. We develop a model of trade and war that can explain both observations. Dependence on imports can lead ...
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作者:Che, Yi; Zhang, Lei
作者单位:Shanghai Jiao Tong University
摘要:We exploit a policy-induced exogenous surge in China's college-educated workforce that started in 2003 to identify the impact of human capital on productivity. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that industries using more human-capital intensive technologies experienced a larger gain in total factor productivity after 2003 than they did in prior years. Exploring the pathways from human capital increases to TFP growth, we find that these industries also accelerated n...
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作者:Hu, Audrey; Offerman, Theo; Zou, Liang
作者单位:Tsinghua University; University of Amsterdam; Tinbergen Institute; University of Amsterdam
摘要:English auctions are known to be ex post efficient under various circumstances. However, they are inefficient ex ante for risk-averse seller and bidders. Our analysis of the English premium auction (EPA) reveals that, while maintaining ex post efficiency, awarding a premium to the highest two bidders makes the auction more attractive to all risk-averse bidders. This result is remarkably general, as it holds with possible interdependent bidder valuations and affiliated types. When bidders exhib...
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作者:Mandler, Michael
作者单位:University of London; Royal Holloway University London
摘要:When luxury purchases signal the incomes of buyers, a monopoly will deliver signals efficiently. If in contrast competitors sell counterfeit copies of luxury goods at low prices, consumers will have to buy larger quantities or higher qualities to transmit the same signals, which wastes resources. Competition does maximal harm when entrants produce indistinguishable replicas of existing luxury goods since prices will fall the furthest. The choice of which goods should deliver signals presents a...
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作者:Cohn, Alain; Marechal, Michel Andre
作者单位:University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Zurich
摘要:Laboratory experiments provide insights into the drivers of cheating behaviour, but it is unclear to what extent cheating in the laboratory generalises to the field. We conducted an experiment with middle and high school students to test whether a common laboratory measure of cheating predicts three types of school misconduct: (i) disruptiveness in class; (ii) homework non-completion; and (iii) absenteeism. We find that students who cheat in the experimental task are more likely to misbehave a...
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作者:Molinari, Benedetto; Turino, Francesco
作者单位:Universidad de Malaga; Universitat d'Alacant
摘要:Aggregate data reveal that in the US, advertising absorbs 2% of GDP. Because the purpose of brand advertising is to foster sales, we ask whether such spending appreciably affects aggregate consumption and economic activity. This question is addressed by developing and estimating a dynamic general equilibrium model in which households' preferences for differentiated goods depend on brand advertising. Estimated results for the US economy indicate that in the long-run, the presence of advertising...
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作者:Bennett, Daniel; Naqvi, Asjad; Schmidt, Wolf-Peter
作者单位:University of Southern California; Vienna University of Economics & Business; University of London; London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
摘要:Information provision is only an effective behaviour-change strategy if the information is credible. A novel programme augments conventional hygiene instruction by showing participants everyday microbes under a microscope. Through a randomised evaluation in Pakistan, we show that this programme leads to meaningful hygiene and health improvements, while instruction alone does not. Traditional medicine, which offers an alternative disease model, may undermine learning by strengthening prior beli...
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作者:Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio; Weil, David N.
作者单位:Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Brown University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要:We examine the effect of malaria on economic development in Africa over the very long run. Using data on the prevalence of the mutation that causes sickle cell disease, we measure the impact of malaria on mortality in Africa prior to the period in which formal data were collected. Our estimate is that in the more afflicted regions, malaria lowered the probability of surviving to adulthood by about ten percentage points, which is twice the current burden of the disease. The reduction in malaria...
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作者:Franklin, Simon
作者单位:University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
摘要:Do high search costs affect the labour market outcomes of jobseekers living far away from jobs? Irandomly assign transport subsidies to unemployed youth in urban Ethiopia. Treated respondents increase job search intensity and are more likely to find good, permanent, jobs. Subsidies also induce a short-term reduction in temporary work. I use a high-frequency phone call survey to track the trajectory of search behaviour over time to show that the subsidies significantly increased job search inte...
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作者:Gerasimou, Georgios
作者单位:University of St Andrews
摘要:Three reasons why decision-makers may defer choice are indecisiveness between various feasible options, unattractiveness of these options and choice overload. This article provides a choice-theoretic explanation for each of these phenomena by means of three deferral-permitting models of decision-making that are driven by preference incompleteness, undesirability and complexity constraints, respectively. These models feature rational choice deferral in the sense that whenever the individual doe...