For the first 13 years after entry, the hazard rate for firm exits is persistently higher forurban than rural firms. While differences in observed industry market, local marketand firm attributes explain some of the rural-urban gap in firm survival, rural firmsretain a survival advantage 25%...

Using U.S. Census data from 1950 to 2000, this paper provides a framework to compare theresponses of immigrant and native population growth to the economic incentives offered by ruralcounties in the Midwest and the South. We find that in marked contrast to traditional destinationsfor new...

Any serious empirical study of factor substitutability has to allow the data to display complementarity as well as substitutability. The standard approach reflecting this idea is a translog specification – this is also the approach used by numerous studies analyzing the relative capital-skill...

We use a unique dataset of bond downgrades from a niche rating company that has been found to be reacting faster to publicly available information than its competitors. Using regime-switching models we propose risk measures to quantify stock return disturbances (distress costs) associated with...

The rapidly growing literature on the relationship between energy consumption and economicgrowth has not univocally identi…ed the ‘real’causal relationship yet. We argue that bivariate mod-els, which analyze the causality at the level of the total economy, are not appropriate — especiallyin...

We consider an artificial population of forward looking heterogeneous agents making decisions between schooling, employment, employment with training and household production, according to a behavioral model calibrated to a large set of stylized facts. Some of these agents are subject to policy...

In this papaer, we put DSGE forecasts in competition with factor forecasts. We focus on these two models since they represent nicely the two opposing forecasting philosophies. The DSGE model on the one hand has a strong theoretical economic background; the factor model on the other hand is mainly...

A striking fact about pricing is the prevalence of \sales": large temporary price cuts followedby prices returning exactly to their former levels. This paper builds a macroeconomic modelwith a rationale for sales based on firms facing customers with different price sensitivities.Even if firms...

This paper analyzes the relation between correlation risk and the cross-section of hedge fund returns.Legal framework and investment mandate imply that hedge funds can be severely exposed tocorrelation risk: Hedge funds ability to enter long-short positions can be useful to reduce marketbeta,...

Building a model with three imperfect markets – goods, labor and credit – representing aproduct’s life-cycle, we find that goods market frictions drastically change the qualitative andquantitative dynamics of labor market variables. The calibrated model leads to a significantreduction in...