Many Chinese cities once gave students the option of paying higher tuition to attend their preferred schools. This seat-purchasing mechanism is neither strategy-proof nor stable. Our paper combines administrative and survey data to estimate students' preferences and conduct welfare analysis. We...

I model the dynamic between ruler and successor. The ruler wants to cultivate a successor for a smooth power transition but fears being ousted by him, while the successor fears being removed by the ruler; these mutual fears may induce ruler--successor conflict. Each party follows a non-monotonic...

This paper studies a model of regime change in which a rebel leader seeking to mobilize supporters faces a trade-off between increasing the rebel group's size and risking information leaks. I~ find that repressing a rebellion via \emph{collective} punishment---whereby not only rebel participants...

We examine the consequences of an intrusive debt-collection tactic that targets delinquent borrowers’ social circles. Our identification strategy relies on the fact that some of the delinquent loans are not worked on due to collection agents’ excessive workload. We show that this tactic...

Mental health may directly affect people's behaviors and decision-making, especially when politicians or government officials suffer a mental health crisis. In this paper, we study how a political movement affects government officials’ mental health. Using field data from the anti-corruption...