Quality of service is of major economic significance in natural monopoly infrastructure industries but is generally not reflected in efficiency analysis. In this paper we present an efficiency analysis of electricity distribution networks using a sample of about 500 electricity distribution...

We model organization as the command-and-communication network of managers erected on top of technology (which is modeled as a collection of plants). In our framework, the role of a manager is to deal with shocks that affect the plants that he oversees directly or indirectly. Organizational form...

This paper extends the existing research on real estate investment trust (REIT) operating efficiencies. We estimate a stochastic-frontier panel-data model specifying a translog cost function, covering 1995 to 2003. The results disagree with previous research in that we find little evidence of...

Este estudio analiza los determinantes de la productividad total de los factores de los bancos españoles desde el año 2000 hasta el período poscrisis. En particular, analizamos los cambios en la productividad derivados del proceso de reestructuración que ha experimentado el sector bancario...

We study network formation in a strategic setting where every agent strives for short paths to the other agents. The main parameter of our model is the marginal rate of substitution between network benefits and linking costs. We provide boundaries of stable networks for increasing and decreasing...

Standard economic theory suggests that capital should flow from rich countries to poor countries. However, capital has predominantly flowed to rich countries. The three essays in this dissertation attempt to explain this phenomenon. The first two essays suggest theoretical explanations for why...

Financial markets in less developed countries suffer from financial dualism, a situation in which a large informal sector coexists alongside a formal one. Contemporary financial market theories are not able to incorporate an understanding of the informal sector and are, therefore, only...

In the first chapter of this dissertation, I estimate the wage elasticity of working in the day labor market in rural Malawi using panel data from a unique field experiment. Though employment in daily wage markets is important to individuals and governments in developing countries, there is...