Existing learning models attribute failures to learn to a lack of data. We model a different barrier. Given the large number of dimensions one could focus on when using a technology, people may fail to learn because they failed to notice important features of the data they possess. We conduct a...

We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

We examine returns to entrepreneurship using a standard measure of welfare, the percapita consumption expenditure. The analysis, using quantile regressions, reveals the existence of a welfare hierarchy in occupations. The results suggest that, across the welfare distribution, entrepreneurs who...

This paper experimentally investigates the impact of different pay and relative performance information policies on employee effort. We explore three information policies: No feedback about relative performance, feedback given halfway through the production period, and continuously updated...

This study examines whether the widely used Niederle and Vesterlund (2007) competition experiment is predictive of a middle school student’s subsequent propensity to take a highly competitive and consequential high school entrance exam. Using a discrete choice mixed logit model to derive...

We conduct an artefactual field experiment to examine various spillover effects of Affirmative Action policies in the context of castes in India. We test a) if individuals who enter tournaments in the presence of an Affirmative Action policy remain competitive after the policy has been removed,...

We develop an equilibrium model of the labor market to investigate the joint evolution of gender gaps in labor force participation and wages. We do this overall and by task-based occupation and skill, which allows us to study distributional effects. We structurally estimate the model using data...

This paper investigates whether differential treatment of men and women in the labor market is due to unobservable differences in productivity or if it is motivated by a taste for discrimination. While studies on sex discrimination typically control for human capital (formal education, job...

In this paper we build a theoretical model to show the role of self-confidence in leading to inefficient job matching equilibria: under-confident highly-qualified workers do not apply for highly-skilled jobs, because mistakenly perceive themselves as having relatively lower abilities with...