This paper examines changes in unionization that have occurred over the last decade or so using individual level micro data on twenty seven of the thirty OECD countries, with particular emphasis on Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Micro-data is also used to model union...

This paper discusses trade barriers that SMEs are likely to encounter in export markets and available policy tools aimed at their reduction or elimination. Drawing on recent work in the Trade Directorate and elsewhere, key types of barriers are identified based on a review of business surveys...

The paper estimates the size of underground economy induced by tax evasion for cross-section of non-OECD countries using currency demand method. Unlike previous studies which usually focus only on the tax rate as the tax evasion factor, the paper presents theory consistent tax evasion estimates...

Long-term deals are one tool that both players and franchises use to manage risk. That tool has been much discussed and empirically tested with respect to player shirking, and has more briefly, and only theoretically, discussed with respect to reducing variance in future payrolls. Our work looks...

Stock-based compensation is the standard solution to agency problems between shareholders and managers. In a dynamic rational expectations equilibrium model with asymmetric information we show that although stock-based compensation causes managers to work harder, it also induces them to hide any...

Equity-based compensation, while inducing greater managerial effort, also provides incentives for managers to fraudulently inflate a firm's stock price. This paper examines the owners' optimal contract in the face of these conflicting incentives when it is sometimes possible for the manager to...

We present new direct empirical evidence in support of Rosen's (1982) 'cloning' hypothesis, explaining the overwhelming firm size-executive pay effect in terms of a predicted greater superiority in managerial talent the larger is the firm. We show that executives from better performing firms are...

Conventional theories about compensation to losers posit that assistance to groups adversely affected by entrepreneurial politics remains static within regimes and across sectors. In contrast, this paper hypothesizes that assistance to those adversely affected by policies depends on...

We examine how financial reporting transparency and quality of Mexican firms vary with corporate governance. We utilize compliance data from the Code of 'Best' Corporate Practices, disclosed annually by public firms in Mexico. We document a significant increase in compliance over the 2000-2004...

Has greater turbulence among firms fueled rising wage instability in the United States? Earlier research by Gottschalk and Moffitt shows that rising earnings instability was responsible for one-third to one-half of the rise in wage inequality during the 1980s. These growing transitory...