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作者：Gourio, Francois; Roys, Nicolas
作者单位：Boston University; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
摘要：In France, firms that have 50 employees or more face substantially more regulation than firms that have less than 50. As a result, the size distribution of firms is visibly distorted: there are many firms with exactly 49 employees. We model the regulation as the combination of a sunk cost that must be paid the first time the firm reaches 50 employees and a payroll tax that is paid each period thereafter when the firm operates with more than 50 employees. We estimate the model using indirect in...
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作者：Ahn, David; Choi, Syngjoo; Gale, Douglas; Kariv, Shachar
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of London; University College London; New York University
摘要：We report a portfolio-choice experiment that enables us to estimate parametric models of ambiguity aversion at the level of the individual subject. The assets are Arrow securities that correspond to three states of nature, where one state is risky with known probability and two states are ambiguous with unknown probabilities. We estimate two specifications of ambiguity aversion, one kinked and one smooth, that encompass many of the theoretical models in the literature. Each specification inclu...
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作者：Qu, Zhongjun
作者单位：Boston University
摘要：This paper considers inference in log-linearized dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with weakly (including un-) identified parameters. The framework allows for analysis using only part of the spectrum, say at the business cycle frequencies. First, we characterize weak identification from a frequency domain perspective and propose a score test for the structural parameter vector based on the frequency domain approximation to the Gaussian likelihood. The construction heavily ex...
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作者：Blundell, Richard; Matzkin, Rosa L.
作者单位：University of London; University College London; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
摘要：The control function approach (Heckman and Robb (1985)) in a system of linear simultaneous equations provides a convenient procedure to estimate one of the functions in the system using reduced form residuals from the other functions as additional regressors. The conditions on the structural system under which this procedure can be used in nonlinear and nonparametric simultaneous equations has thus far been unknown. In this paper, we define a new property of functions called control function s...
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作者：Gill, David; Prowse, Victoria
作者单位：University of Oxford; Cornell University
摘要：In a real effort experiment with repeated competition we find striking differences in how the work effort of men and women responds to previous wins and losses. For women, losing per se is detrimental to productivity, but for men, a loss impacts negatively on productivity only when the prize at stake is big enough. Responses to luck are more persistent and explain more of the variation in behavior for women, and account for about half of the gender performance gap in our experiment. Our findin...
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作者：Albanesi, Stefania; Olivetti, Claudia
作者单位：Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - New York; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Boston University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Fertility in the United States rose from a low of 2.27 children for women born in 1908 to a peak of 3.21 children for women born in 1932. It dropped to a new low of 1.74 children for women born in 1949, before stabilizing for subsequent cohorts. We propose a novel explanation for this boom-bust pattern, linking it to the huge improvements in maternal health that started in the mid-1930s. Our hypothesis is that the improvements in maternal health contributed to the mid-twentieth century baby bo...
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作者：Den Haan, Wouter J.; Sedlacek, Petr
作者单位：University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); University of Bonn
摘要：This paper develops a model according to which the costs of business cycles are nontrivial because they reduce the average level of output. The reason is an interaction between job creation costs and an agency problem. The agency problem triggers separations during economic downturns even though both the employer and the worker would be better off if the job was not discontinued, that is, affected jobs have strictly positive surplus values. Similarly, booms make it possible for more jobs to ov...
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作者：Lippi, Francesco; Schivardi, Fabiano
作者单位：University of Sassari; Luiss Guido Carli University
摘要：In firms with concentrated ownership the controlling shareholder may pursue nonmonetary private returns, such as electoral goals in a firm controlled by politicians or family prestige in family firms. We use a simple theoretical model to analyze how this mechanism affects the selection of executives and, through this, the firm's productivity compared to a benchmark where the owner only cares about the value of the firm. We discuss identification and derive two structural estimates of the model...
