This paper illustrates how fluctuations in aggregate economic activity can result from many small, independent shocks to individual sectors. The effects of the small independent shocks fail to cancel in the aggregate due to the presence of two non-standard assumptions: local interaction between...

This paper presents some new perspectives on the structure and performance of alternative economic organizations. We posit that decision makers make errors of judgement (for example, they sometimes select bad projects while rejecting good projects), and that how these errors are aggregated...

Salary negotiations are a widespread phenomenon that can shape key labor market outcomes, such as welfare and inequality. We provide novel empirical and theoretical insights into the causes and consequences of salary negotiations. We conducted two field experiments involving over 3,100 job...

Using a new survey of French firms' inflation expectations that predates the inflation spike, we document i) evidence on the anchoring of inflation expectations during the inflation surge, and ii) the relevance of inflation expectations for firms' decisions. First, we show that inflation...

Most S&P 500 corporations disclose that their profits depend on non-wage competition for worker talent via workplace amenities like work-life balance. We quantify this dependence using a labor market matching model with endogenous amenities. When productive (unproductive) firms provide the...

This paper leverages a large minimum wage reform in Uruguay to study the effects of minimum wages on the distribution of firm wage premia. Wage inequality decreased substantially after the reform, with almost all of the decrease attributed to a reduction in between-firm inequality. AKM variance...

We design a model-based field experiment to estimate the nature and magnitude of workers' social preferences towards their employers. We hire 446 workers for a one-time task. Within worker, we vary (i) piece rates; (ii) whether the work has payoffs only for the worker, or also for the employer;...

The existence of complementarity across management practices has been proposed as one potential explanation for the persistence of firm-level productivity differences. However, thus far no conclusive population-level tests of the complementary joint adoption of management practices have been...

Sales agents are impatient relative to owners. If a good fails to sell, the owner still retains possession of that good and can enjoy its services, whereas the agent receives nothing. As a consequence, sales agents prefer a lower price than does an owner. Owners are therefore reluctant to...