Using a comprehensive panel dataset on U.S. households, we study the effects of the 2005 bankruptcy reform on bankruptcy, delinquency and debt accumulation. We find that the reform coincided with a 23% permanent drop in the bankruptcy rate relative to pre-reform level. We further document that...

We derive the properties of the distribution of wealth and idiosyncratic risk across occupations at the constrained-efficient allocation.

In 1900, one mother died for every 118 live births in the United States. Approximately 15,000 women died of childbirth each year between 1900 and 1930, and pregnancy related causes accounted for over 15% of all female deaths at age 15-44. For every death, twenty more mothers suffered obstetric...

Survey and experimental evidence point to the existence of a pervasive set of culturally-related barriers. These include lack of mentoring and role models, exclusion from informal networks, gender based stereotyping, display of style different than the organizational norms, difficulties in...

We first build a theoretical model where improvements in maternal health determine a decline in the cost of having children and reduce women's comparative advantage in home activities. Medical progress has two opposite effects on fertility: a positive direct effect that arises from the reduction...

Summarizing, unless admissibility constraints rule out the eventual implementation of the first best, all intertemporal distortions must be transitional. Hence, only settings in which first best allocations are unattainable, such as private information economies, can provide a normative basis...

This paper examines optimal taxation of capital and labor income in a dynamic model with occupational choice.

This paper accounts for the decline in the labor force participation of married women in the US since 1995. We first document that this phenomenon is mainly driven by a decline in participation of college women married to high earning men. We argue that the rise in skill premium and especially...

Please see the attached abstract.