This study examines the costs firms face in adjusting labor demand to exogenous shocks. Evidence on monthly plant-level data shows that adjustment proceeds in jumps: employment is unchanged in response to small shocks, but moves instantaneously to a new equilibrium if the shocks are large....

The authors examine the impact of looks on earnings using interviewers' ratings of respondents' physical appearance. Plain people earn less than average-looking people, who earn less than the good-looking. The plainness penalty is 5 to 10 percent, slightly larger than the beauty premium. Effects...

This paper re-examines Adda and Cornaglia's (2006) evidence on the compensatory behavior of smokers who, in face of higher taxes, are found to reduce their consumption of cigarettes while maintaining their cotinine--a biomarker for nicotine--levels constant. This comment examines the robustness...