This paper examines the returns to the socioeconomic background of origin (or “classâ€) in the labor market in Chile. We employ individual data from several cohorts of graduates from the same program (Business and Economics) of a large and diverse public University in Chile. The data...

In this paper, we use quantile regression methods to analyze the gender gap in the Netherlands. Specifically, we use data from the 1992 wave of the OSA Labour Survey Panel to decompose the difference between the distributions of wages for males and females who are employed full-time. The...

Although poverty levels have been diminishing in Mexico since the late 90’s, several regions still show high levels of poverty which are extremely high in some rural areas. The paper addresses the issue of the linkages between sectoral growth (urban/rural) and poverty levels by applying...

I construct a model of equilibrium unemployment where workers and firms enter into dynamic labor contracts. The model is in the spirit of the models of efficiency wages (e.g. Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984) in that I rely on moral hazard to give rise to involuntary unemployment. Compared the...

This paper develops a theory of outside ownership where such an ownership arrangement mitigates an external finance problem. Part of the gains from outside ownership accrue to asset owners which determines the asset value. The theory provides a context to analyze asset ownership and asset values...

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...

Under the standard competitive model, if a tax change affects a group of workers with highly inelastic labor supply, their earnings will fall by essentially the entire nominal employer share of the tax increase. Allowing the wage to play a motivational role but maintaining the market-clearing...

This paper examines the portability of star security analysts’ performance. Analysis from a panel data set of research analysts in investment banks over 1988-1996 reveals that star analysts who switch employers show an immediate decline in performance, which persists for at least five years....

Team size in scientific research and its geographic dispersion are important because research collaboration indicates the division of labor, and because collaboration is one channel of by which knowledge spills over. For both reasons, economic efficiency of the knowledge-creating industries is...

We examine an economy in which the cost of consuming some goods can be reduced by making commitments to consumption levels that do not vary across states. For example, moral hazard and matching considerations may make it cheaper to produce housing services via owner-occupied than rented housing,...