This paper considers a dynamic matching model with imperfectly observable worker effort as in Shapiro and Stiglitz (1994). In our economy the no-shirking condition endogenously imposes real wage rigidity on the matching market. This generates "contractual fragility" and inefficient separations...

As Posner (1997) has observed, when individuals in a relationship can commit to imposing costs upon each other then efficient behavior in the absence of law is possible. The question is whether efficient norms of behavior evolve endogenously in a population. We show that in a standard hold up...

This paper integrates the literature of Mortgage Design with that of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) to present a novel way of mortgage financing (with a zero interest rate) using cooperatives. This mode of financing dissipates credit (default) risk better than the normal mode...

Dynamic models with inequality constraints pose a challenging prob- lem for two major reasons: Dynamic Programming techniques often necessitate a non established differentiability of the value function, while Euler equation based techniques have problematic or unknown convergence properties....

We introduce a ''new'' algorithm that can be used to solve stochastic dynamic general equilibrium models. This approach exploits the fact that the equations defining equilibrium can be viewed as set of algebraic equations in the neighborhood of the steady-state. Then a recursive scheme, which...

The lion’s share of hidden Markov models (HMMs) /Markov regime switching models considered in economic research incorporates a comparably small number of states. The popularity of models with mostly two or three states principally results from their good interpretability: often regime...

This paper examines the effect on economic growth and welfare of the access to external financing which results in technological transfers to a developing country from the rest of the world. We consider a two-sector stochastic growth model and compute optimal accumulation mechanisms in the...

Total factor productivity (TFP) computed as Solow-residuals could be subject to input-substitution bias for two reasons. First, the Cobb-Douglas (CD) production function restricts all input substitutions to one. Second, observed inputs generally differ from optimal inputs, so that inputs...