The emergence of powerful, big box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot has enhanced the interest among both academics and non-academics in the effects of countervailing power. One of the major concerns expressed by some commentators is that rising countervailing power will lead to poorer...

While home ownershipt provides a great deal of personal and social benefits, it poses a substantial constraint on individuals' asset allocation.

Difference in differences methods have become very popular in applied work. These models are typically quite easy to implement and to interpret. However, performing inference with these models is not. This paper addresses one particular aspect that is likely to be very important in most...

The usual index of leading indicators has constant weights on its components and is therefore implicitly premised on the assumption that the dynamical properties of the economy remain the same over time and across phases of the business cycle. We explore the possibility that the business cycle...

This paper develops a theory of strategic trading in markets with large influential arbitrageurs. If arbitrageurs are not very well-capitalized, margin requirements or capital constraints make their trades predictable. Other market participants can exploit this by trading against them....

This paper evaluates the return to formal education over the life-cycle and compare it to informal, on the job training. More specifically, we assess the apprenticeship system in Germany by comparing the long run value of education choices and subsequent labor market outcomes for apprentices and...

This paper shows that the Mexican experience from 1945 to 2002 is, like the German hyperinflation period, a unique monetary ``natural experiment,'' where fundamental relationships, like money demand, PPP and the monetary model of exchange rate determination can be analyzed with unparalleled...

This paper presents a theory of location choice that draws on insights from the incomplete contracts and investment flexibility (real option) literatures. We provide conditions under which human capital is more efficiently created and better utilized within industrial clusters that contain...

Consider the case of a firm with private valuation information bargaining with a supplier over the price and quantity of a good. If the firm and the supplier bargain directly, the bargaining outcome may not yield a first-best outcome due to the presence of information rents. The question we...

This paper explores the quantitative impact of the Baby Boom on stock and bond returns. It constructs a neoclassical growth model with overlapping generations, in which agents make a portfolio decision over risky capital and safe bonds in zero net supply. The model has exogenous technology and...