This thesis is the collection of three independent studies that analyze the interplay between institutions and economic development. In Chapter 1, I examine the relationship between wealth inequality and institutions. I present a model of regulated entry where entrepreneurs form coalitions of...

The first chapter studies Entrepreneurship and the Stigma of Failure. Entrepreneurial activity varies substantially across countries and sectors and appears to be related to the stigma of failure. To understand this phenomenon, I present a multiple-equilibrium model based on endogenous stigma of...

This dissertation consists of three separate essays. In the first essay, privatization is found to improve bank performance by both better monitoring of existing firms, and improved selection of new bank clients. Data on firms borrowing from government-owned banks, and firms borrowing from a...

This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter explores the effect of Wal-Mart expansion on local retail employment. The phenomenal expansion of Wal-Mart provides a clean case for studying the labor-market effects of increased efficiency. I estimate the effect of Wal-Mart entry...

(cont.) Risk Management have begun implementing strategies to provide commodity price and weather insurance in the developing world. In Chapter 3 (joint with Professor Rob Townsend from the University of Chicago), we examine how shocks to the price of rubber, an important but volatile Thai...

This thesis includes four essays on the macroeconomic effects of financial market imperfections. The first essay studies the incentives for banks that participate in an interbank market to keep a sufficient level of reserves. It presents a model where, in presence of imperfect insurance against...

In the first chapter, I demonstrate that banks play a special role in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, and that this role potentialy explains the excessive sensitivity and asymmetric response of the real economy to small and temporary changes in interest rates. While banks exploit...