Increased standardization of goods was a by-product of the technical innovations triggering the Industrial Revolution. A side effect of standardization was the new abilities it allowed for theft and embezzlement. Two significant modern institutions radically evolved during the 18th to mid 19th...

OLS estimates of partner choice equations are biased when the unobservables determining partner choice are correlated with the unobservables determining the likelihood of marriage. This paper presents an example. A theoretical model generates a two-equation empirical model in which...

The success of joint liability programs depends on nature and composition of borrowing groups. Group formation is a costly process and in our model these costs vary with the social identity of group partners. We show that risk heterogeneity in a borrowing group may arise due to the social...