When comparing two competing approximate models using a particular loss function, the one having smallest `expected true error' for that loss function is expected to lie closest to the underlying data generating process (DGP) given this loss function and is therefore to be preferred. In this...

Local polynomial regression is extremely popular in applied settings. Recent developments in shape constrained nonparametric regression allow practitioners to impose constraints on local polynomial estimators thereby ensuring that the resulting estimates are consistent with underlying theory....

The years leading up to the "great recession" were a time of rapid innovation in the financial industry. This period also saw a fall in interest rates, and a boom in liquidity that accompanied the boom in real activity, especially investment. In this paper we argue that these were not unrelated...

Costless pre-play communication has been found to effectively facilitate coordination and enhance efficiency by increasing individual payoffs in games with Pareto-ranked equilibria. We report an experiment in which two groups compete in a weakest-link contest by expending costly efforts....

Schott et al. (2007) have shown that the “tragedy of the commons” can be overcome when individuals share their output equally in groups of optimal size and there is no communication. The assignment of individuals to groups as either strangers or partners does not significantly affect this...

A recent literature explores the macroeconomic implications of organizational capital (OC) and especially its ability to resolve discrepancies between existing models and data. This paper contributes to the OC literature by studying the effect of OC on international investment flows in the...

I present a theoretical model where the economy endogenously adopts the technological ideas of a slowly evolving technological frontier, and show that the presence of a "technological gap" between unadopted ideas and current productivity can lead to multiple equilibria and therefore the...

Many recent studies have argued that it is useful to introduce a third input into the neoclassical production technology which encapsulates the productivity enhancing knowledge created in the process of production. This input, often called organizational capital, has been shown to improve the...

This paper provides the first Canadian study of the link between cost to the student and the choice of university. Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the differences among Ontario universities in “net cost” defined as tuition and fees minus the expected value...

We use a unique set of linked administrative data sets to explore the determinants of persistence and academic success in university. The explanatory power of high school grades greatly dominates that of other variables such as university program, gender, and neighbourhood and high school...