The paper studies a learning model in which information about a worker's ability can be acquired symmetrically by the worker and a firm in any period by observing the worker's performance on a given task. Productivity at different tasks is assumed to be differentially sensitive to a worker's...

The pervasive role of information and communications technology (ICT) in the new economy is well documented. There is now considerable agreement among scholars regarding the ICT contribution to national productivity growth. On the other hand, the production spillover and network externality...

In this paper, we adapt the audit studies methodology to analyze gender and racial differences in hiring for a particular segment of the market of three selected occupations in Metropolitan Lima: salespersons, secretaries and (accounting and administrative) assistants. The adapted pseudo-audit...

This paper tests stylized facts and theories from behavioral economics and laboratory experiments using a randomized field experiment of our design. A major South African consumer credit lender issued 60,000 scripted direct mail solicitations where several marketing “treatments†were...

This paper estimates the prevalence of asymmetric information in a consumer credit market using a field experiment of our design. A major South African lender issued 60,000 direct mail offers where the interest rate was randomized along two different dimensions — an initial “offer...

This paper proposes a test for the existence of placebo effects, as described by the so-called expectancy theory. This theory, which is the dominant medical theory of how placebo effects operate, posits that health outcomes rise in individuals' beliefs about the probability that they are getting...

We consider a two-sided, finite-horizon search and matching model with heterogeneous types and complementarity between types. The quality of the pool of potential partners deteriorates as agents who have found mutually agreeable matches exit the market. When search is costless and all agents...

In this paper we provide an explicit characterization of the escape dynamics for the Phellps problem of government controlling inflation with adaptive learning of the approximate Phillips curve, alternative to the one considered by Cho, Williams and Sargent (2002) (CWS in sequel). Our approach...

We study how firm boundaries are affected by the reduction in search costs when business-to-business electronic markets are adopted. Our paper analyzes a multi-tier industry in which upstream parts suppliers incur procurement search costs, and downstream manufacturers incur incentive contracting...

In this paper we provide an explicit characterization of the escape dynamics for the Phellps problem of government controlling inflation with adaptive learning of the approximate Phillips curve, alternative to the one considered by Cho, Williams and Sargent (2002) (CWS in sequel). Our approach...