This paper considers marriage, divorce and reciprocity-based cooperation by couples in the form of sharing of earnings-risk. While risk sharing is one benefit to marriage it is also limited by divorce risk. With search in the marriage market there may be multiple equilibria differing not only in...

This paper analyses the link between growth and public policy when the latter depends on economically important fundamentals. When policy is endogenous the measured effects of policy on growth will generally be biased. Using a widely quoted theoretical model, the signs of the biases are derived....

Effects of in-class variation and student rank on the probability of withdrawal: cross-section and time-series analysis for UK university students

Human capital accumulation is introduced into a growth model with R&D-driven expansion in variety and quality and knowledge spillovers from both research activities. Economic growth is not longer uniquely tied to population growth as previous growth models without scale effects suggest. The...

Using a large panel of 6,946 French manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the effect of monetary policy on investment from 1990 to 1999 through the cost-of-capital and the cash-flow channels. We compare several specifications of neo-classical demand for capital, taking into account...

We impose a horizontal equity constraint on the problem of finding the optimal utilitarian tax mix. The horizontal equity constraint requires that individuals with the same ability have to pay the same amount of taxes regardless of their preferences for leisure. Contrary to normal findings, we...

Long-term contracts for electricity can counter market power and reduce prices in short-term markets. If electricity retailers face competition, however, companies signing long-term contracts are exposed to the risk that a fall in short-term prices would allow rivals to buy on the spot market...

We apply the theory of real options to the problem of education choice when returns to education are uncertain. We show that the length of time spent in school will be an increasing function of the risk associated with education and not just the expected return. This fact has been neglected in...

What is the information content of firm ratings? We disentangle the relative contribution to firms? ratings of sovereign risks and individual firms? performance indicators, reportedly employed by rating agencies. We reach three conclusions. First, sovereign risks? contribution is...

We examine the effect of stock options on managerial incentives to invest. Our chief innovation is a model wherein firm value and executive decisions are endogenous. Numerical solutions to our model show that managerial incentives to invest are multi-dimensional and highly sensitive to option...