We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long standing research questionsrelating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments: within andacross firms, and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firmsgenerally aim to shed light on...

In this paper, we propose a decision framework where people are individuallyasked to either actively consent or dissent to some pro-social behavior. We hypothesize thatconfronting individuals with the choice of engaging in a specific pro-social behaviorcontributes to the formation of...

A widely recognized paper by Colin Mayer (1988) has led to a profound revision of academic thinking about financing patterns of corporations in different countries. Using flow-of-funds data instead of balance sheet data, Mayer and others who followed his lead found that internal financing is the...

In this paper we analyze how a firm might protect quasi-rents in an environmentof imperfect capital markets, where switching lenders is costly to the borrower, andcontracts are incomplete. As switching costs make the firm vulnerable to ex-postexploitation, it may want to diversify lending in...

This paper develops a principal-agent model of financial contracting in which optimal contracts resemble a combination of debt and equity. When defaulting on debt, the firm is punished by disruption of external funding. Such contracts however, invite rivals to compete more aggressively to...

This paper deals with optimal financial contracts which simultaneously provide payincentives and impose constraints on managerial control.

The classical approach to testing for structural change employs retrospective tests using a historical data set of a given length. Here we consider a wide array of fluctuation-type tests in a monitoring situation - given a history period for which a regression relationship is known to be stable,...

In a recent paper Loeffler/Schneider (2000) showed that introducing a tax on a financial market does not create an arbitrage opportunity...

We generalize the classical concept of a certainty equivalent to a model where an investor can trade on a capital market with several future trading dates.We show that if a riskless asset is traded and the investor has a CARA utility then our generalized certainty equivalent can be evaluated...