In this paper, we analyze the interactions between growth and the contracting environment in the production sector.Allowing incompleteness in contracting implies that viable production relationships for firms and workers, and therefore the profitability of industries, depend on the rates of...

We present a theoretical explanation of the gender wage gap which turns on the interaction between men and women in households.In equilibria where men are over-represented in full-time work, we show that firms rationally choose to hire women only at strictly lower wages than men.The model...

This paper develops a framework which analyzes how a population's culture affects the decisions of rational profit maximizing firms, while simultaneously exploring how the actions of these firms in turn affect the population's culture.By endogenizing culture as well as the more usual economic...

We develop a unified theory of endogenous business cycles in which expansions are neoclassical growth periods driven by productivity improvements and capital accumulation, while downturns are the result of Keynesian contractions in aggregate demand below potential output. Recessions allow...

Many argue that elements of a society s norms, culture or social capital are central to understanding its development.However, these notions have been difficult to capture in economic models.Here we argue that trustworthiness is the economically relevant component of a society s culture and...