Thirlwall (1979) argues that the development of a country depends of the rest of the world´s dynamics and the degree of imports openness, which implies that the growth is limited by the current account of the balance of payments. The aim of this study is to estimate the Thirlwall´s affirmation...

This paper estimates and decomposes wage differentials in Ecuador. Is corrected by self-selection bias with the two-step methodology proposed by Heckman (1979) and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (1973) is checked whether the differences found are due to the initial endowment of human capital or...

This article examines the effect of market access and human capital on regional wage disparities in Ecuador using the wage equation of the core-periphery model of the New Economic Geography and a multi-level model. Our results, based on cross-sectional data, suggest that market access has a...

Several recent papers argue that contracts provide reference points that affect ex post behavior. We test this hypothesis in a canonical buyer-seller relationship with renegotiation. Our paper provides causal experimental evidence that an initial contract has a highly significant and...

We present an international trade model with multiproduct firms. Firms are heterogeneously endowed with two types of capabilities that jointly determine the trade-off within firms between managing a large portfolio of products and producing at low marginal cost. The model can explain many of the...

This paper reports data from a laboratory experiment on two-period moral hazard problems. The findings corroborate the contract-theoretic insight that even though the periods are technologically unrelated, due to incentive considerations principals can benefit from offering long-term contracts...

We study a continuous-time game of strategic experimentation in which the players try to assess the failure rate of some new equipment or technology. Breakdowns occur at the jump times of a Poisson process whose unknown intensity is either high or low. In marked contrast to existing models, we...

We study endogenous group formation in tournaments employing experimental three-player contests. We find that players in endogenously formed alliances cope better with the moral hazard problem in groups than players who are forced into an alliance. Also, players who are committed to expending...

The compensation of executive board members in Germany has become a highly controversial topic since Vodafone's hostile takeover of Mannesmann in 2000 and it is again in the spotlight since the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2009. Based on unique panel data evidence of the 500 largest firms...

We examine whether performance-sensitive debt (PSD) is used to reduce hold-up problems in long-term lending relationships. We find that the use of PSD is more common in the presence of a long-term lending relationship and if the borrower has fewer financing alternatives available. In syndicated...