A congestion toll may have two purposes. First, to reduce congestion the current period. Second, to induce investment which will reduce demand and congestion in later periods. When government cannot credibly commit to future tolle, the optimal toll in the each period may be low, and congestion...

This paper examines the link between international trade, investment in human capital and inequality in the distribution of income and wealth.

Caballero (1991) shows that a larger uncertainty only increases the investment of a perfectly competitive firm with a constant returns to scale technology. We show, however, that the option value generated by a one-time fixed cost can cause the increasing uncertainty to reduce investment from a...

Everyone knows that the movie business is risky. But how risky is it? Do strategies exist that reduce risk? We investigate these questions using a sample of over 200 motion pictures. We discover that the movies are very risky indeed. Box-office revenues are asymptotically Pareto-distributed and...

In emerging markets today, legal protections for intellectual property are weak and enforcement is lax. Counterfeiting of consumer goods and infringement on patents, copyrights, and trademarks cost corporations hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Strengthening laws and intensifying...

We consider a firm that is subject to employment protection laws that limit the firm's ability to fire labor. In particular, we suppose that though a firm which shuts down can fire all its workers, it may fire no fewer. Compared to a firm that is subject to no employment protection, a firm...