The past century has witnessed major changes in the economic choices of American women. Over the long term, there has been a marked trend towards lower fertility and higher female labor force participation. However, change did not occur in a uniform fashion: during the post-war Baby Boom,...

I study the dynamics of shiftwork when the demand for the output of the firm is stochastic and adjusting the number of shifts entails irreversible costs. The analysis reveals the existence of a gap between the level of demand that triggers activation of a shift and the level of demand that...

We present a model in which the social norms regarding women's labor force participation (LFP) differ from the norms concerning men's. Assuming that these norms depend on past rates of women LFP creates a gradual increase in women LFP

We present a model in which the social norms regarding women's labor force participation (LFP) differ from the norms concerning men's. Assuming that these norms depend on past rates of women LFP creates a gradual increase in women LFP

We present a model with two production sectors, one more advanced than the other. Counter-intuitively, we find that a technological improvement may lower the long-run well-being in the economy, even though markets are fully competitive. This can occur if the technological improvement happens in...

The role that Bernanke's Bad News Principle plays in the modern theory of investment under uncertainty is analyzed. The analysis shows that the actual investment dilemma is that by delaying investment firms trade-off a higher present value of earnings for a lower present value of the investment...

In competitive industries, foreseeable policy changes lead to inevitable runs which increase the volatility of investment. We show that this phenomenon, well-known in the case of production caps, also applies to taxes, and occurs whether policy changes apply to new entrants only or equally to...

A typical model of investment under uncertainty, where firms pay an irreversible cost in order to produce, is studied. The analysis has a novel focus on the recipient of this payment, which is modeled as a firm or government that sells a resource (or a right) necessary for the production of the...