We study the effects of enrichment activities such as reading, homework, and extracurricular lessons on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We take into consideration that children forgo alternative activities, such as play and socializing, in order to spend time on enrichment. Our...

Time preferences can affect divorce probability both affecting the quality of the match and affecting the spouses' reactions to negative shocks. We analyze the relationship between time preferences and divorce decisions using data from the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth, which...

In 2007, Michigan began requiring all high school students to take the ACT college entrance exam. This natural experiment allows us to evaluate the performance of several parametric and semiparametric sample selection correction models. We apply each model to the censored, prepolicy test score...

A highly segmented labor market usually favors a mismatch between supply and demand, significantly limiting the functional flexibility and the resilience of this market to macroeconomic shocks. From this perspective, such a market hampers the transition of an EU member to the euro zone,...

This article provides a theoretical framework for comparing two different hiring practices: an unpaid competitive internship that is followed by a potential job offer versus a standard series of interviews. After fully characterising the optimal hiring process, I show that high-ability...

In this paper we study the allocation of time devoted to informal learning and education, i.e. those activities carried out during leisure time and outside formal education courses which boost individuals' human and social capital. For immigrants the private investment in these activities is...

Can early childhood interventions compensate for innate deficits? In this paper, I study the forced right-hand writing of left-handed children (“switching”). While previous literature has found that, due to innate cognitive deficits, left-handers obtain less human capital and lower wages...

The trade-off between increased representation and perceived quality is central to the debate on how to address underrepresentation in high-profile professions. We address this trade-off using a dynamic model of career selection where juniors value both the identity and perceived quality of...

We analyze a firm's job-assignment and worker-monitoring decisions when workers face occasional crises. Firms prefer to assign good workers to a difficult task and to not employ bad workers. Firms observe failures but only observe successfully resolved crises if they monitor the worker. If...