This paper analyses leadership and charisma within the framework of social choice. In societies that lack formal institutional authorities, the power of leaders to coerce is limited. Under such conditions we find that social outcomes will depend not only on policy preferences but also on...

It is possible to partially order cities with two ethnic groups according to the Lorenz criterion. Similarly, it is possible to partially order cities according to the informativeness of neighborhoods about the ethnic groups of its inhabitants. We show the equivalence of these two orders for the...

We study the extent to which religious activity responds to the presence and activity of other religions. Specifically, we employ individual-level survey data and county-level expenditure data to examine the extent to which Hanukkah celebration among U.S. Jews is driven by the presence of...

The GARCH and stochastic volatility (SV) models are two competing, well-known and often used models to explain the volatility of financial series. In this paper, we consider a closed form estimator for a stochastic volatility model and derive its asymptotic properties. We confirm our theoretical...

We study a sequential Tullock contest with two stages and two identical prizes. The players compete for one prize in each stage and each player may win either one or two prizes. The players have either decreasing or increasing marginal values for the prizes, which are commonly known, and there...

Experimental evidence suggests that consumers are affected by reference prices and by relative price differences ("relative thinking"). A linear-city model of two retailers that sell two goods suggests how this consumer behavior affects firm strategy and market outcomes. A simple model analyzes...

We experimentally test the social motives behind individual participation in intergroup conflict by manipulating the framing and symmetry of conflict. We find that behavior in conflict depends on whether one is harmed by actions perpetrated by the out-group, but not on one’s own influence on...

The collapse of structured bond ratings during the 2007-2008 financial crisis called attention to the possibility of rating inflation due to lowered rating standards and rating shopping. Nevertheless, little empirical evidence has been offered for this prospect. The Israeli corporate credit...

We study a sequential (Stackelberg) all-pay auction with two contestants who are privately informed about a parameter (ability) that affects their cost of effort. Contestant 1 (the fi?rst mover) exerts an effort in the fi?rst period, while contestant 2 (the second mover) observes the effort of...