Flexible labor markets require geographically mobile workers to be efficient. Otherwise, firms can take advantage of the immobility of workers and extract monopsony rents. In cultures with strong family ties, moving away from home is costly. Thus, individuals with strong family ties rationally...

We estimate the impact of hurricane strikes on local economic growth rates and how this is reflected in more aggregate growth patterns. To this end we assemble a panel data set of US coastal counties' growth rates and construct a hurricane destruction index that is based on a monetary loss...

Prominent economic theories have emphasized the role of commonly held perceptions and expectations for determining macroeconomic outcomes. A key empirical question is how such collectively held beliefs are formed. We use the FIFA World Cup 2006 as a natural experiment. We provide direct evidence...

In EU countries, opening up of telecommunications markets and regulations have helped to reduce the price of digital services which is an important quasi-input factor in all firms. Integrating the use of telecommunications in a macroeconomic production function is the analytical starting point...

We study the impact of tax and minimum wage reforms on the incidence of informality. Togauge the incidence of informality, we use measures of the extent of tax evasion, the extentof minimum wage non-compliance, and the size of the informal workforce. Our approachallows us to examine (i) the...

This paper examines changes in individual earnings during positive and negative growthperiods in three Latin American economies: Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela. We askwhether those individuals who start in the best economic position are those who experiencethe largest earnings gains or the...

In this paper we question the hypothesis of full rationality in the context of job changingbehaviour, via simple econometric explorations on microdata drawn from WHIP (WorkerHistories Italian Panel). Workers´ performance is compared at the end of a three-year timewindow that starts when choices...

In this paper we use a very large matched database on firms and employees to analyze theuse of temporary agencies by low earners, and to estimate the impact of temp employmenton subsequent employment outcomes for these workers...

This paper investigates the effect of sanctions of unemployment insurance benefits on theexit rate from unemployment for a sample of Danish unemployed. According to the findingsare that even moderate sanctions have rather large effects...