This paper develops a dynamic evolutionary model in which agents make choices on the basis of relative performance criteria. We distinguish two classes of learned behavior: imitative dynamics and a new class of dynamics, "introspective dynamics." Under imitative dynamics, agents compare payoffs...

This paper considers a durable goods monopolist who can commit to prices at each date, total output, and possibly release dates for stock. The monopolist faces a finite number of arbitrarily patient consumers. Surprisingly, if the monopolist would earn. When the monopolist can also commit to...

Sticky nominal prices represent a cornerstone of many macroeconomic models. The effects of price adjustment on strategic firm interaction and the resulting price series implications are less established. This paper develops a spatial economy to analyze these interactions. In the two period...

Within a hierarchical firm structure, the paper details how the composition of a worker's skills and the (non) observability of a worker's ability affect wage and promotion paths. Promotion takes place over time and is not efficient, as employers seek to exploit their inside information about a...

We examine a monetary economy in which there is an absence of the temporal coincidence of wants, and households are free to barter. If the growth rate of the money supply is sufficiently small, monetary exchange is preferable. Nevertheless, barter may drive out money exchange even if monetary...

This paper explores strategic trade in short-lived derivative securities by agents that possess long-term information about an underlying asset. In contrast to trading equity, where an informed agent will ultimately benefit from his trades, trading short-lived securities is profitable only if...

This paper looks at the incentives to free-ride on the information signaling of others and shows how this can lead to delay in productive activity and to a cascade of activity once information is signaled. In the presence of increasing returns to scale to a profitable project, an initial pioneer...

Creditors do not generally honor human capital as collateral. This paper demonstrates how long term wages contracts between workers and firms can circumvent the capital market imperfection. Generation of firm specific skills creates an economic bond between worker and firm. This bond enables the...

This paper explores the political economy of unions, and the consequences this has for bargaining and strikes. We develop a very simple model to show that there are circumstances in which everyone, including striking workers, gains when some employees cross the picket line. We detail how strikes...

We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model of economics development with altruism in which the evolution of the extent of entrepreneurship, the rate of rural-urban migration, the scale and structure of production and the degree of income and wealth inequality are endogenously determined. The...