The consumption value of education is an important, but rather ignored factor behind the individual's educational choice. This paper suggests a method for measuring the consumption value of education in a compensating differentials framework when the ability bias is corrected for. As an example,...

Venture capitalists enjoy incentive-laden compensation schemes where they are paid a fixed amount (management fees) plus a share of profit (success fees). This scheme is of course intended to provide venture capitalists with strong incentives under the heavy information asymmetry (Sahlman, 1982,...

Using personnel data, we compare worker productivity under a relative incentive scheme -where pay is based on individual productivity relative to the average productivity of the group- to productivity under piece rates. We find that productivity is at least 50% higher under piece rates. Further...

This paper is concerned with the dynamics of competition in American political campaigns, in particular with how the type of message a candidate sends is affected by the stage of the campaign, the status of the candidate, and the competitiveness of the race. The paper examines the allocation of...

External recruitment has often been viewed as a necessary evil in that it trades off the need for outside talents with the incentives of inside workers. This paper, however, shows that even from an incentive viewpoint, external recruitment has its positive role to play. Specifically, if...

This paper addresses the relationship between individual perceptions and the uses of a business language. Perceptions are modeled explicitly, and are not common knowledge. A business language enables individuals with different perceptions to trade. I present a formal criterion for faithfulness...

This paper explores the quantitative impact of the Baby Boom on stock and bond returns. It constructs a neoclassical growth model with overlapping generations, in which agents make a portfolio decision over risky capital and safe bonds in zero net supply. The model has exogenous technology and...

We extend the standard specification of the market price of risk for affine yield models of the term structure of interest rates, and estimate several models using the extended specification. For most models, the extended specification fits US data better than standard specifications, often with...

This paper develops a search-theoretic model of the cross-sectional distribution of asset returns. It abstracts from risk premia and focuses exclusively on liquidity. A float-adjusted return model (FARM) is derived, explaining the pricing of liquidity with a simple linear formula: In...

In this article we construct a model in which agents exhibit preference for ownership with respect to a durable (house). Ownership is modeled as a continuous function of debt service normalized by the price of the house. We study the utility optimization problem of an investor not endowed with...