Recently, Batabyal (2005) has analyzed a game model of dowry determination in which a mediator plays a key role. Batabyal's analysis shows that the equilibrium dowry offers from the bride and the groom optimally trade off the desire to make an assertive offer with the likelihood that this offer...

The joint liability literature claims that positive assortative matching, or risk homogeneity, is always the first best solution. We examine this claim in presence of group formation costs and find that the assertion is not always true.

This paper presents a theoretical description of some of the recent developments in the financial programs offered by microfinance institutions (MFIs). We show that even under for-profit MFIs, there is not necessarily a crowding out of the poorest microentrepreneurs, and that MFIs may optimally...

The joint liability literature claims that positive assortative matching, or risk homogeneity, is always the first best solution. We examine this claim in presence of group formation costs and find that the assertion is not always true.

Complexity aversion describes the preference of decision makers for less complex options that cannot be explained by expected utility theory. While a number of research articles investigate the effects of complexity on choices, up to this point there exist only theoretical approaches aiming to...

We extend the framework of Dubey and Geanakoplos (2002) to the case of moral hazard. We analyze the equilibrium properties of the model and we show that equal ex-ante consumers may choose to promise differently, and, as a consequence, choose different actions. This illustrates how the pool of...

Career concerns can mitigate moral hazard problems, but these diminish as the agent's retirement age approaches. Addressing this problem, this note draws attention to the role of the interaction between contractible and non-contractible signals.

How might central bank communication of its internal forecasts assist the conduct of monetary policy? The literature has shown that heterogeneous expectations may have destabilizing effects on aggregate dynamics. This paper analyzes through adaptive learning the policy implications of central...

This note analyzes the effect of a change in the covariance between labor income risk and interest rate risk on the threshold level for prudence ensuring positive precautionary saving, recently derived by Baiardi, Magnani and Menegatti (2014). We show that this effect is different in different...

This paper examines a pre-firm environment where agents who are potentially to become employees of a firm exert influence over one another. I argue that the manner in which they do so and the level of information an entrepreneur has on the agents' influence affects what is the most and least...