Adverse selection harms workers, but benefits firms able to identify talent. An informed intermediary expropriates its agents' ability by threatening to fire and expose them to undervaluation of their skill. Agents' track record gradually reduces the intermediary's information advantage. We show...

Unskilled workers in low productivity jobs typically experience higher labour turnover. This paper shows how this empirical finding is related to variation in the efficiency of the matching process across occupations. A simple theoretical model of employers' search shows that firms find it...

Using German establishment data, we show that the relationship between intensity of performance pay and intensity of applicant screening depends on the nature of production. In establishments with increased multitasking, performance pay is positively associated with applicant screening. By...

We provide evidence that promotion incentives influence the effort of public employees by studying China's system of promotions for teachers. Predictions from a tournament model of promotion are tested using retrospective panel data on primary and middle school teachers. Consistent with theory,...

We propose a two-period matching model of firms and managers to argue that managerial career concerns may not guarantee assortative matching in the market for reputation. In the model, firms compete for managerial talent, and managers are concerned about their reputations. The market updates...

Over the last two centuries, impressive progress in health has led to great increases in life expectancy at all ages. The impact of the "health transition" on the governance pattern of family firms has never been formally investigated. To probe how firm governance adapts to rising human life...

Using confidential microdata, I document that foreign multinational firms' income shifting out of the United States is positively associated with their real economic activity in the US. When these firms face greater restrictions on income shifting – resulting from the staggered implementation...

This manuscript proposes a theory of why and when organizations "support" their employees with resources, time, and freedom beyond what seems economically optimal. The idea is that support plays an information-generating role in that it renders output more informative about employees' abilities....

We investigate the consequences for losing competitors following the end of a promotion tournament. We examine CEO tournaments and find that the total incentives of non-promoted executives (NPEs) are likely to decrease significantly at the end of a tournament based on evidence of their lower...

In many professional service firms, new associates work long hours while competing in up-or-out promotion contests. Our model explores why these firms require young professionals to take on heavy work loads while simultaneously facing significant risks of dismissal. We argue that the...