This paper proposes an algorithm to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of structural parameters in discrete games with multiple equilibria. The method combines a genetic algorithm (GA) with a pseudo maximum likelihood (PML) procedure. The GA searches efficiently over the huge space of possible...

In this paper, I propose and test a simple technology-based theory of firms’ sensitivities to aggregate shocks. I show that when the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is below unity, low profitability firms are more sensitive to aggregate shocks, i.e. to the business cycle....

Experiments on time preference document numerous .ndings that seem to con- tradict the standard model of intertemporal choice. These .ndings are based on how subjects choose between delayed rewards. This paper shows that if subjects integrate such rewards with their consumption plans, and expect...

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, it engenders excess burden. This...

We consider the CUSUM of squares test in a linear regression model with general mixing assumptions on the regressors and the errors. We derive its limit distribution and show how it depends on the nature of the error process. We suggest a corrected version that has a limit distribution free of...

We model asymmetric information arising from physician agency, and its effect on the design of payment and healthcare quantity. The physician-patient coalition aims to maximize a combination of physician profit and patient benefit. The degree of substitution between profit and patient benefit in...

This paper examines the impact of investment-specific technological change on labor composition in U.S. manufacturing industries from 1974 to 1994. I show that investmentspecific technological change increases the relative demand of non-production workers to production workers, while TFP growth...

Choice may be determined both by a consideration of one’s welfare (normative preference) and by desires (temptation preference). To provide foundations for such a theory, Gul and Pesendorfer [10, 11] adopt a preference over choice problems as a primitive and hypothesize that temptation creates...

Temptation is the conflict between one’s desires (temptation preference) and one’s view of what choices he should make (normative preference). In seminal work, Gul and Pesendorfer [7, 8] provide foundations for a model of temptation on the basis of the idea that temptation creates a...

This paper first generalizes the trend-cycle decomposition framework of Perron and Wada (2005) based on an unobserved components models with innovations having a mixtures of Normals distribution, which is able to handle sudden level and slope changes to the trend function as well as outliers. We...