Using a formal political economy model with incomplete information regarding the accident preventing activities chosen by the firm (moral hazard) under limited liability, we illustrate different conditions under which an environmental protection system based on extending liability to private...

We characterize the distortions in environmental liability sharing between firms and banks that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. These distortions stem from three factors: the presence of moral hazard, the use of objective functions by firms and banks that differs...

Using a structural model of the interactions between governments, firms and insurance companies, we characterise the distortions in environmental liability sharing between firms and insurance companies that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. These distortions stem from...

We focus in this paper on the effects of court errors on the optimal sharing of liability between firms and financiers, as an environmental policy instrument. Using a structural model of the interactions between firms, financial institutions, governments and courts we show, through numerical...

I provide a complete characterization of Nash implementable allocations of spending in prevention by judgement-proof injurers. This characterization is used to identify the optimal rule that allows for the maximum total spending in prevention. The optimal rule amounts to apply the negligence...

We analyze the survival and success of a large sample of Canadian penny stock initial public offerings (IPOs), launched mostly by small and unprofitable firms from 1986 to 2003. The failure rate of these IPOs is lower than the one observed in the U.S. for larger IPOs, probably because of lax...

The0501n objective of the new Bankruptcy Act (Bill C-22) is to promote the use of financial reorganization in order to increase the chances of survival of businesses that are experiencing financial difficulties and, as a consequence, to save jobs. Data from a sample of 417 commercial...

This study analyzes the impact of remittances as seen in household survey data from three small rural communities. OLS and multivariate anova regressions were used to analyze household survey data collected in Cumbe and Gualaceo (Ecuador) and in Ciudad Romero (El Salvador). The results...

We estimate a dynamic programming model of schooling decisions in which the degree of risk aversion can be inferred from schooling decisions. In our model, individuals are heterogeneous with respect to school and market abilities but homogeneous with respect to the degree of risk aversion. We...

In this essay, I provide an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical contributions pertaining to human capital. The first part follows the development of the theory with special emphasis, naturally, on Becker's path-breaking work (JPE '62 and Woytinski Lecture) and also on Ben-Porath's...