Inventory management for a new product is challenging due to the lack of historical data, and sales data cannot fully capture the actual demand as excess demand is usually unobservable. Meanwhile, demand-related features are available in the era of big data. We study how to determine the...

We document that at the aggregate level, lagged S&P 500 Sharpe Ratio is as strong as change in the Fed Funds Rate, in explaining deposit growth. We argue that households use past performance of the stock market to make asset allocation decisions, so good stock market performance causes...

This paper studies why non-financial firms invest in risky financial assets. Within a dynamic corporate finance model with macroeconomic fluctuations, we show that firms can use risky financial assets to transfer liquidity from states with low aggregate investment opportunities to states with...

This paper investigates the impacts of teacher characteristics on student performance using a nationally representative and randomly assigned teacher-student sample in China. We find that having a more experienced or female homeroom teacher (HRT) with additional classroom management duties...

Using administrative data from a major Chinese insurance firm that raised its sales targets and rewards for insurance agents in a highly non-linear incentive system, we find that the improvement in productivity far outweighed the costs associated with bunching distortions and other gaming...

Firms often use non-linear incentive systems to motivate workers to achieve specified goals, such as paying bonuses to reach targets in sales, production, or cost reduction. Using administrative data from a major Chinese insurance firm that raised its sales targets and rewards for insurance...