In this paper we investigate the effect of family connections to politicians on individuals' labor market outcomes. We combine data for Italy over almost three decades from longitudinal social security records on a random sample of around 1 million private sector employees with the universe of...

Industry and economic growth demand various skills and expertise from the populace. As the industry grows, more specialised skills are required to match and meet the demand. However, in the case when industry growth is declining or when capacity utilisation is low skills level may fail to...

At the end of a controlled experiment where research assistants were hired for coding news from online newspapers, the experimenter-employer asked a number of them to roll a die and report the result in order to be paid in cash an amount linear on the reported number from 1 to 6 that could go...

A workday is often summarized as a succession of meetings, much too numerous and often unproductive! This frustration that can affect many negotiations is nicknamed “meetingitis.” This text concocts a vaccine against this disease of our time. A three-step approach aims at more responsible...

This article describes the state of gender diversity across technology and geography within the U.S. patent bar. The findings rely on a new gender-matched dataset, the first public dataset of its kind, not only of all attorneys and agents registered to practice before the United States Patent...

Many Alaskans depend on family-centered harvests of wild fish, wildlife, and plants in what could be considered a home production model. State and federal laws provide priorities for these “subsistence uses,” a divisive political issue in Alaska. We explore Alaska’s subsistence economies...

A judge facing exogenous constraints on his pecuniary income has an incentive to reduce his workload to increase his private welfare. In the face of an increase in caseload, this incentive will induce judges to attempt to terminate some cases more rapidly. In class action cases, failing to grant...

Under certain circumstance, a relaxation in occupational licensing standards can increase the quality of those who enter the industry. The effect turns on the opportunity costs of preparing for the licensing examination: making the test easier can increase the quality of those passing if it...

Drawing on my analysis of survey data from 1991 on a large cross-section of establishments in the machined durable goods sector, I find that group-based participative structures are combined in a new organizational form, the participative bureaucracy. In a participative bureaucracy, a formal...