Using a unique newly constructed data set on Israeli IPO firms in the 1990s, we study costs and benefits of universal banking. The post-issue accounting profitability of firms underwritten by bank affiliated underwriters that were also borrowers from the same bank in the IPO year, is...

We have argued that convertible debt can be better than a simple mixture of debt and equity in stage financing situations. When the venture capitalist retains the option to abandon the project if in the medium term he receives a negative signal, the entrepreneur has an incentive to engage in...

We study the post-IPO performance of Israeli manufacturing firms during teh period 1991-4, finding a decline in profitability and an increase in General and Adminstrative Expenses normalized by sales (GAE), reflecting managerial waste.

We quantity an amount of cross-sectional income and consumption smoothing achieved within subgroups of states, such as regions or clubs, e.g. the club of rich states.

What are the cyclical properties of U.S. state and local government fiscal policy? The budget surplus of local and, in particular, state governments is procyclical, smoothing disposable income and consumption of state residents. This happens over both short- and medium-term horizons. Procyclical...

We ask whether Israeli banks lost market power as a consequence of financial liberalization, despite the fact that the banking industry remained highly concentrated. We estimate a "monopoly power" conduct parameter and a "monopsony power" conducte parameter, jointly, for the non-indexed local...

We remove the aggregate US-wide component in US state level disposable income and consumption and find that state-specific consumption exhibits substantially less excess sensitivity to lagged state-specific disposable income than if the aggregate component is not controlled for. This is evidence...

We investigate channels of federally provided income insurance for U.S. States, finding that a major part of federal insurance is provided through transfers. We compare the "bang for the buck" of various fiscal institutions, finding that unemployment benefits are dramatically more efficient in...

We measure the amount of smoothing achieved through various components of the government deficit in Eu and OECD countries. For EU countries, at the 1-year frequency, 13 % of shocks to GDP are smoothed via government consumption, 18 percent via transfers, 5 % via subsidies, while taxes provide no...