This paper explores the role of information transmission and misaligned interests across levels of government in explaining variation in the degree of decentralization across countries. Within a two-sided incomplete information principal-agent framework, it analyzes two alternative...

This paper explores the role of information transmission and misaligned interests across levels of government in explaining variation in the degree of decentralization across countries. Within a two-sided incomplete information principal-agent framework, it analyzes two alternative...

This paper explores the role of information transmission and misaligned interests across levels of government in explaining variation in the degree of decentralization across countries. Within a two-sided incomplete information principal-agent framework, it analyzes two alternative...

A Global Environment Facility (GEF) special study on stakeholder participation and social issues, including science and technology, was conducted for 30 GEF-financed biodiversity conservation and sustainable use projects which have been completed or are near completion. The findings indicate...

In the social learning model of Banerjee [1] and Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer and Welch [2] individuals take actions sequentially after observing the history of actions taken by the predecessors and an informative private signal. If the state of the world is changing stochastically over time during...

In the social learning model of Banerjee (1992) and Kikhchandani, Hirshleifer and Welch (1992), individuals take actions sequentially after observing the history of actions taken by the predecessors and an informative private signal. If the state of the world is changing stochastically over time...

This paper studies optimal contest design for competitive experimentation. The principal seeks contributions from multiple agents whose experimentation efforts are unobservable. To induce effort, the contest must provide agents with an information rent that increases in the duration of the...

Do crises make people more prosocial? And what role does communication play in promoting such attitudes and behavior? These answers matter for post-crisis economic recovery as social capital has been linked to growth. We leverage the incidence of COVID-19 --a multifaceted global crisis-- and...